Ambrotype
Category
Photographs
Date
Unknown
Materials
Gilt, Metal, Paper
Measurements
83 mm (H); 95 mm (W); 8 mm (D)
Order this imageCollection
Snowshill Manor and Garden, Gloucestershire
NT 1329834
Caption
In a familiar seaside scene, young sisters Mary Constance Wade (1884–1942), known as Connie, and Olive Muriel Wade (1885–1958) sit on the sand, buckets and spades in hand, surrounded by their parents, aunt and grandmother. Paget Augustus Wade (1849–1911), at the far left of the image, and his wife Amy Blanche Spencer (1858–1943), beside him at the back, appear serious and stern, in keeping with much Victorian demeanour in front of the camera. They are perhaps on the beach in Great Yarmouth, where Amy’s mother lived, or in Eastbourne, where Connie and Olive’s elder brother Charles Paget Wade (1883–1956) attended boarding school. No doubt the colder English coastline made quite the contrast to the island of St Kitts in the Caribbean, where Paget made regular trips to oversee his sugar plantations. His father Solomon (1806–81) had given him £16,000 in 1879 to help purchase Mansion Estate on the island. Solomon also owned plantations there and in Montserrat, which he left to his other sons. Paget’s mother Mary Jones (1817–1914) was born in St Kitts of African-Caribbean heritage. As for leisure time back in England and the traditions of the seaside, families and friends frequently recorded their moments together as day-trippers or holidaymakers – just as we might today. Itinerant photographers took to popular resorts, ready and waiting with their cameras to produce such affordable keepsakes as this. Using cheap materials, they would be made on either thin sheets of iron (ferrotypes or tintypes) or on glass (commonly known as ambrotypes). The image could be prepared on the spot as a souvenir to treasure for generations to come.
Summary
Cased ambrotype (collodion positive) photograph of Wade family members at the seaside. Paget Augustus Wade (1849-1911) far left, Amy Blanche Spencer (1858-1943) at the centre back, and their two daughters Mary Constance Wade (1884-1942) and Olive Muriel Wade (1885-1958) at the front with their bucket and spades.
Provenance
Given to the National Trust with Snowshill Manor in 1951 by Charles Paget Wade.