Series: Series of albums of photographs

Description

Bedford Lemere and Company produced a series of albums of photographs to showcase examples of their work, of which the NMR holds 65 volumes (61 currently catalogued). The albums are divided into exterior views and interior views. There is also an album on Chesterfield House - both interiors and exteriors, another on Danesfield, Buckinghamshire, and two volumes on the ships HMS Ophir and QSTS Mauretania (1907). Within each of the main series of exterior and interior views, the albums are numbered sequentially and their contents are more or less chronological, in original negative number order: the range of negatives covered is stated on the spine. The NMR holds exterior volumes 8-19 and 21-24, and interior volumes 8-45 covering negatives BL05152-BL19120 and a period from 1883-1905. Not all images within these negative runs were printed for inclusion in the albums. Many of the prints match the glass plate negatives of HBL01/01, but some are now the only known surviving items.

Typically, each album has a frontispiece with the Bedford Lemere and Company stamp and address. The pages are numbered, usually in the top or bottom right-hand corners, and are annotated with the original negative number; name and location of the subject photographed; name of the architect, decorator or furnisher; and occasionally notes on similar or related views. Most albums contain around one hundred pages, most of which appear at some time to have possessed an image but some are now missing.

Although the collection is national in extent, it has a marked bias towards Greater London. In addition, there is some Welsh, Scottish and Irish material, with less common French coverage. The subject coverage of the albums is extensive: remarkable views country houses and their recently refurbished, often lavish, interiors; grand town houses; more humble domestic dwellings; civic structures; educational establishments; industrial premises, including various factories; shops and commercial buildings; clubs and learned societies; theatres; hospitals; financial institutions, such as banks and friendly societies; hotels etc.

Content

This is part of the Collection: HBL01 The Bedford Lemere Collection

This Series contains the following materials:

Photograph (Albumen Print): 4,174

Photograph (Gelatine Print): 242

Photograph (Platinum Print): 158

Photograph (Print): 196

Photograph Album: 66

Rights

Source: Historic England Archive