P.L. Dunbar Classes

Early Days

John Valentine

John Valentine, (1792-185?), set up in business as a print cutter for linen manufacturers in Dundee in the early years of the nineteenth century, but times were hard for the trade and his business went bust. Around 1822 he started a new business as a lithographer and stamp cutter. This was later known as John Valentine & Son when James Valentine ,(1815-79), joined his father working as an engraver in 1832. James started his own business around 1840, and married Rachel Dobson in 1843; their son, William Dobson Valentine (1844-1907) was born the following year, followed later by George Dobson Valentine (1852-90).

James Valentine

James Valentine took up the daguerreotype process in the 1840s, then went to
Paris to study with M. Bulow. On his return in 1850 he took over the printing side of his father’s company.

zSB(3,3)In the mid 1850s that he opened a portrait studio in
Dundee, after he had taken up the wet plate process. The studio, erected in 1855, was the largest ‘photographic glasshouse’ in
Britain.

Portrait Photography

It was soon producing cartes-de-visite photographs, 2 1/4″ x 3 3/4″ (5.5cm x 9.5cm) images mounted on a 2.5×4 inch card. http://www.txdirect.net/~imagine/image/cdv/cdvx.htm These had been made popular by Andre Disderi of Paris, who obtained a patent for them in late 1854, although he was not the inventor.They were a cheap form of print, produced by cameras taking 4, 6 or 10 images on a single glass plate, and the cheapest photographers sold them for as little as 6d a dozen. (A working man at the time might earn around ten to twenty times as much a week.)

Topographic Views

Around 1860, James Valentine decided to add topographic views to the output of the company. His eldest son, William Dobson Valentine, studied chemistry at

London
University before training in landscape photography with Francis Frith, joining the family firm in 1863. His younger son, George Dobson Valentine also took photographs for the company, concentrating on the studio work.

The company soon began to get a good reputation for its scenic photography, produced as albums of prints and single views 4″x3″, 8″x6″, 12″x8″ sold for the wealthier middle class drawing rooms. With the craze for stereo photography, stereo cards were added to the range of views.

Royal Warrant

Queen
Victoria commissioned a series of photographic views from James Valentine in 1866, and he became one of quite a few photographers to be made “Photographer By Special Appointment To Her Majesty, the Queen,” in 1867. The company undertook a wide range of work, including an unsuccessful attempt at underwater photography in connection with the investigation of the

Tay
Bridge disaster of 1879.

Edinburgh Photographic Society

In 1861, James Valentine was one of seven founding members of the Edinburgh Photographic Society (EPS), which continues to the current day. There is some useful historical information about the Valentine family and other photographers on their web site. You can also find out about there about the earlier ‘Photographic Society of Scotland’, founded in 1856. Its membership included some well-known names in early photography, but it appears to have gone into demise shortly before the founding of the EPS, and was wound up in 1873.