Louis Ferdinand Colas, box maker

Tags

boxes, photography

Street View: 13 Suppl.
Address: 55 Fleet Street

55 Fleet Street was a large building shared in 1848 by Colas, box maker, Alfred Page, bootmaker, and E. Burton, tobacconist. A small alley led through the building to Pleydell Court and hence to Lombard Lane (Lombard Street in Horwood’s 1799 map). The entrance to the Court seems to be situated more towards the left nowadays, but that may just be because the new buildings of numbers 55 and 56 have not been rebuilt along the exact boundary lines of the old ones that stood there in Tallis’s time. The land tax records show Burton and Page as the property holders who paid the tax; Colas must just have rented some space from one of them, probably from Page as he had the larger share of the house and paid three times as much tax as Burton. Colas is sometimes referred to as a paper box maker or, more often, as a mill-board box maker. According to The Dictionary of Trade, Products, Manufacturing, and Technical Terms (1898), a mill-board box maker was “a manufacturer of stout paper or card-board boxes”, including “hat and bonnet boxes, pill-boxes, snuff-boxes, match-boxes, fancy-boxes, muff-boxes, linen drapers-boxes, etc.”

Louis Ferdinand Colas was born in Rémalard, Normandy, France, in ±1821, and was listed in the 1841 census as Louis Colas, a 20-year old French box maker, living at Lower Marsh in the household of Francis Moque, cheesemonger. This Francis Mouqué was officially called Francis Augustus Mouqué (also spelled Mougue or Mouque without the accent) and came from Ostend, Belgium. His wife, whom he married in 1835, was Susanna Marian Reid; she is called Marian in the 1841 census, but Susanna in the 1851 census. The same confusion of names occurred with Louis Ferdinand Colas who was named Louis F. in the census and other records, but more often just Ferdinand Colas. In the 1845 and 1848 Post Office Directories, Colas can be found at 55 Fleet Street as a box manufacturer and Mouqué as an engraver at the same address. At some point before 1850, Colas and Mouqué entered into a partnership and moved to 105 Cheapside. The 1850 Post Office Directory confuses the two addresses and lists Colas at both 105 Fleet Street and 105 Cheapside. Here again, they rented the property, as the Land Tax records show other names; in 1852 Messrs Smith (Simpson) and in 1858 Wilson & Morgan.

advertisement in The Mechanics’ Magazine, 23 March, 1850

The move to Cheapside coincided with an additional line of business as they not only produced fancy boxes, but also daguerrotypes. In The London Gazette of 1 December 1854, Mouqué and Colas announce that they have dissolved their partnership with Colas to continue the business at Cheapside. Mouqué had another change of occupation and is listed in the 1861 census as warehouseman of a shirt maker. He died in 1868. Colas seems to have concentrated on his original work, the making of boxes, and in 1865 removes the business to 57 Cheapside. However, a year later he is to surrender himself in a charge of bankruptcy and is then listed with the addresses 9 Westmoreland-buildings, Aldersgate Street, and 28 Hildrop Crescent, Camden. Earlier that same year he had been elected to be a member of the Freemasons’ United Grand Lodge, but if he thought that network might be useful to him, he was mistaken, as in 1870 he is once again asked to surrender himself to the Registrar of the Bankruptcy Court. He is then listed as of 32 Norfolk Road, Dalston and of 40½ Monkwell Street, late of 232 Fore Street and before that of 112 Fore Street. Fancy box making was apparently not quite as profitable as it had been.

The 1871 census still lists him as millboard box maker at 32 Norfolk Road, so he must have been able to turn things round to continue his business. He died in 1876.

In 1850, our box maker L.F. Colas of 105 Cheapside had written a booklet on photography in which he explained the difference between the French and the American method of polishing the plates and the composition of the accelerant used. In his text he refers to Mr. Claudet whom we have come across in this blog as one of the partners in the firm of Claudet & Houghton, glass dealers (see here). Daguerrotypy, or the Daguerro process, had been invented by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre in 1839 and became a readily available method of photography until ±1860 when easier and cheaper methods were developed (see here). In the 1840s, a lot of people jumped on the bandwagon and started a Daguerrotype studio in addition to their regular business. It seems that Mouqué and Colas did just that.

Sliding box camera with Colas lens (Source: http://earlyphotography.co.uk/site/entry_C700.html. With grateful thanks for allowing me to use the photograph)

The publishers of Colas’s text, Lerebours and Secretan, were well-known manufacturers of optical instruments and photographic supplies and at some point Colas may even have learned the art of grinding lenses from Lerebours, as lenses exist with the text “L.F. Colas élève de Lerebours Paris”, although it is not absolutely certain that the L.F. Colas who worked in London was the lens maker (information from earlyphotography.co.uk; see also here). It is even possible that he just imported the lenses.

advertisement in the Liverpool and Manchester Photographic Journal, 15 April 1857. As it says that Mander is the sole agent in England, it would suggest that L.F. Colas did not reside in the country, and that would indicate that there were two people called L.F. Colas, one in London and one in France

1853 book by A. Claudet and Colas. This edition also published by Lerebours and Secretan

Whatever the true involvement of box maker Colas with the grinding of lenses will, for the moment, have to remain an unsolved puzzle for lack of evidence, but that the box maker from France was involved in early photography in London is certain.

Neighbours:

<– 56 Fleet Street

54 Fleet Street –>

Claudet & Houghton, glass dealers

Tags

glass, photography

Street View: 11
Address: 89 High Holborn

In 1821, Antoine Francois Jean Claudet married Julia Bourdelain at St. Mary Islington. In 1828, Antoine dissolves a partnership as glass warehouseman at Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, with Richard Hetley. A year later Claudet has moved to the Holborn area where Tallis was to find him. When, in October 1929, Claudet’s three children (Anne Mary, Justus Frederic and Henry) are all baptised at St. Andrew Holborn, the address for the Claudets is given as High Holborn, unfortunately without a number, so it is uncertain whether he already occupied number 89 where Tallis was to find him with another partner, George Houghton. Where the Claudets are at the time of the 1841 census is uncertain, but George Houghton and his family are definitely living above the shop at number 89, and they are still there in 1851. George is described as glass merchant in both censuses. Antoine Claudet and his family can be found at Park terrace, Islington in the 1851 census which shows the international background of the family. Antoine was born in France; his wife Julia in London; his mother-in-law, Ann Bourdelain, in Germany; his son (Justus) Frederick and his daughter (Anna) Maria both in France, but the younger son, Frank (Francis George), in London.

Advertisements in Tallis’s Street View

Advertisement in Bradshaw’s Illustrated Handbook to France, n.d

That Claudet and Houghton are not just average glass dealers, as one might assume, can be seen from their advertisements which not only list plate and shade glass, but also photographic materials. Claudet had acquired a licence to produce Daguerrotype photographs and he set up a studio at the Adelaide Gallery. Over the years, he introduced numerous improvements in the photographic process, such as a reduction in exposure time, painted backgrounds, the use of red light in the dark room, the photographometer, the focimeter, and many more.⁽¹⁾ In 1853, Claudet registered a patent as “photographic artist, for the invention of ‘improvements in stereoscopes'”.⁽²⁾ That same year, Claudet successfully applied for the fellowship of the Royal Society and his application form lists his accomplishments regarding photography.⁽³⁾ By then he had moved to Gloucester Road, Regent’s Park where he was to remain the rest of his life. He died in December 1867.⁽⁴⁾

Advertisement in The Times, 3 March 1840 (grateful thanks to Mike Robinson who sent me this advert)

Advertisement in The London Review of 3 August 1861

portrait of Claudet

Claudet was the author of a small brochure entitled ‘Du Stéréoscope et de ses applications à la Photographie’ (Paris, 1853; see the post on L.F. Colas) and of two Papers in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society; one on the effect of the chlorides of bromine and iodine in the Daguerreotype process, and the second on the deposit of mercury on the silver plate. He also wrote many papers in various other magazines, all on various aspects of the photography process.

An interesting article on Claudet’s photographic career and his successive studios, where his son Henry started his career as a photographer, can be found here (PDF at bottom of page). Unfortunately, the author relegates Houghton to a single mention in a footnote, which is a shame as he, and later his son, ran the High Holborn side of the business for many years. George Houghton seems to have been the man in the background, the one who quietly but successfully managed the shop at 89 High Holborn while Claudet invented and developed the photographic improvements. In 1852, George junior joined the business which was henceforth called Claudet, Houghton and Son. George junior obtained his freedom from the City of London by redemption in 1877, probably coinciding with his father’s retirement as the 1881 census lists George senior at Hampstead as a retired glass merchant and George junior as a glass merchant employing 16 men and 2 boys. Although George happens to be at an address at Hastings on the day the census is taken, it does not mean he has left London completely, as ten years later, he can be found at Willesden and is then listed as photographic dealer. He died in 1913 and from his probate record we learn that more members of the family were involved in photography as the three sons listed in the probate are all connected with the business: George Edwin is listed as a photographer and Edgar William and Charles Edward as photographic apparatus manufacturers.⁽⁵⁾ More information on the further history of the Houghton business and (a very bad) picture of the shop can be found here. The shop itself was blitzed in 1940 and nothing now remains at Holborn to remind us of the photographic business.

Advertisement in Post Office Directory for Suffolk, 1875

Portraits done by Claudet can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery (here).

(1) Oxford Dictionary of Biography and Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography.
(2) The London Gazette, 8 April 1853.
(3) The application form can be seen on the Royal Society website (here).
(4) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1868. Probate went to his widow Julia and son Frederic. The estate was valued at under £6,000.
(5) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1913. The estate was valued at over £17,800.

Neighbours:

<– 90 High Holborn

88 High Holborn –>

Dymond & Co, operative chemists

Tags

chemist, photography

Address: 146 Holborn Bars
Street View: 8

In 1780, the Land Tax records for the Farringdon Without Ward list John and Robert Dymond for a substantial property in Holborn. They are charged almost twice as much as their near neighbours; not suprisingly if you consider the width of their property. The Medical Register for the year 1783 tells us that Robert, an apothecary, has died 17 June 1783 at Barnsley, Yorkshire. And in the list of subscribers to John Sheldon’s The History of the Absorbent System (1784), John describes himself as ‘surgeon’. We next hear of Dymond in 1802 as being the apothecary to the House of Recovery, the Institution for the Cure and Prevention of Contagious Fevers in the Metropolis.⁽¹⁾ He seems to have combined the skills of apothecary and physician as that same year, The London Medical and Physical Journal lists him as ‘physician extraordinary’ and as ‘apothecary’.

In 1813, the Land Tax records list Joseph Dymond as the owner of 146 Holborn Bars and The London Gazette tells us that the partnership between Joseph Dymond and Samuel Smith as surgeons and apothecaries has been dissolved by mutual consent on 25 December 1812. The next Dymond we hear from is another Robert who in 1820 receives a medical degree from Edinburgh University with his Dissertatio Medica Inauguralis de Morbis Artuum Quibusdam and we find him in 1836 in the Land Tax record for Holborn. The 1841 census lists him with his wife Mary, his daughter Mary and his son Robert at 146 Holborn Bars, but the large property is also occupied by Owen Thomas Owen, a surgeon and his family, John Turner, a chemist, and various servants. In other words, the property more or less houses a complete medical centre. Owen Thomas Owen and one Charles Button had at one time been in partnership “trading under the style or firm Dymond and Company, Operative and Manufacturing Chymists”, but the partnership was dissolved at the end of 1838.⁽²⁾ Although Owen is mentioned first in the census, Dymond seems to have been the owner of the business as he is mentioned as the one insured when a fire broke out in the premises by a “bursting small chemical apparatus”.⁽³⁾

Report in The Morning Chronicle of 10 July 1851

In 1844, Dymond is still the one listed in the Land Tax records, but by 1847, Charles Button had taken over the premises. Was he the same person who had been in partnership with Owen before? The 1851 census tell us that Robert Dymond has moved to Bolton Hall in Yorkshire. He must have done well for himself in the time he had his business in Holborn as he now employs nine servants, ranging from domestics to gardeners. In the 1851 census, Button is living at 146 Holborn Bars and styles himself “operative and manufacturing chemist employing five persons”. That same year, a report in the newspaper shows us that Button was not just a chemist who concocted pills and potions, as we are told that “a number of gentlemen met yesterday at 146, Holborn-bars, to inspect a model of Messrs. Shepherd and Button’s submarine telegraph”. The invention consisted of a chemical substance with which the usual gutta percha coating of electrical wires was covered. Around these layers came a metal casing which was to protect the wire when placed on rocky seabeds.⁽⁴⁾ The wire was to be used for the electric telegraph between Copenhagen and Hamburg.⁽⁵⁾

Advertisement in Thomas Sutton, A Dictionary of Photography (1858)

In 1853, Button placed an advertisement in The Journal of the Society of Arts to notify “photographers &c., that he still continues to manufacture and supply Chemical and Apparatus for their use”. The curious use of the word “still” may very well have something to do with a fire that broke out on the premises. The inquest, reported in The Standard of 16 March 1853, tells us that police constable Walker and serjeant Patterson had discovered that the back warehouse of Button’s shop was on fire. The firemen were alerted, who doused the fire quickly, but one of the firemen brought out “a vessel of melted fluid, which he poured into the gutter. The liquid immediately ignited, but was put out by the firemen in the course of a few minutes, by their throwing water upon it. It then formed itself into a solid mass about the pavement and road”. A little later, the stuff had ignited again and serjeant Patterson tried to stamp the fire out and while doing that, his trousers caught fire and after the firemen doused him in water, he was transported to the hospital, but later died of complications. Patterson admitted to having put a piece of the material in his coat pocket, which probably ignited when he was trying to stamp out the fire in the road. It turned out to have been phosphorus which, according to Button “was quite safe when covered with water”, but, although the external had become solid when the fireman doused it, the internal was still liquid and when Patterson stamped on it, hot sparks would fly out in all directions and that was what probably ignited the piece in his coat pocket. The verdict was accidental death. At the inquest, it also transpired that Button, who had been at his country residence when the fire broke out, occupied the back warehouse and that the front shop was occupied by Mr. Boulton (this was in fact William Bolton), chemist and druggist.

Advertisement from The Photographic News (1859)

Although Button annouced in the advertisement that he continued to supply photographers, his business was declared bankrupt in 1854, but he must have managed to hang on, as in 1856, both Bolton and Button were still at 146 Holborn Bars. In that year, they were mentioned in the papers because several inhabitants of Holborn and Brook Street had complained of unpleasant smells because of the chemical experiments carried out on the premises. Dr. Letherby, the medical officer of health, reported that he had “directed that Mr. Button should construct a hood over his yard, for collecting the acid vapours, that he should discontinue the distillation of muriatic acid, and that he should adopt means for preventing the escape of sulphuretted hydrogen”. He also “directed that Mr. Boulton should discontinue the manufacture of gun cotton.”⁽⁶⁾ Chemistry was a dangerous business and later that same year, Bolton himself got his hands burned when he tried to extinguish a fire when two bottles of ether exploded.⁽⁷⁾

After Button was once again declared a bankrupt in 1858, Bolton remained at number 146 until his death in 1867⁽⁸⁾, at one point in partnership with Francis Barnitt (1859-1864). One of their distinguised customers was Charles Darwin who in 1863 bought 9s worth of “poison for plants” to protect his childrens’ dried flowers from getting mouldy. Joseph Dalton Hooker, Darwin’s friend and Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, had advised him to ask Bolton and Barnitt for a bottle of the poison they supplied to the Kew Herbarium and to wash the flowers in it before drying.⁽⁹⁾

If you are interested in what Dymond had for sale, there are 1834 (Joshua Dymond, 28 pages) and 1837 (Dymond & Co., 34 pages) catalogues under the title Chemicals and Apparatus Prepared and Sold, Wholesale and Retail to be found in various libraries, but you may have to travel some distance (see WorldCat).
———————-
(1) The Morning Chronicle, 3 February 1802.
(2) The London Gazette, 1 January 1839.
(3) The Charter, 8 December 1839.
(4) The Morning Chronicle, 10 July 1851.
(5) The Morning Chronicle, 30 December 1851.
(6) The Morning Chronicle, 19 March 1853.
(7) The Standard, 18 August 1856.
(8) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1867. Probate was granted to Catharine, his widow, and the estate was valued at £10,000, later resworn at £6,000.
(9) The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 11: 1863 (1999).

Neighbours:

<– 147 Holborn Bars

145 Holborn Bars –>