2500 glass negatives- many WW1 studio portraits

[Terry Carter]

I cannot afford them. An absolute shame that the seller is splitting the negatives up into lots of 500.

Some fantastic pictures of Staffordshire soldiers and nurses amongst them all

Well known On-line auction site. Type the following into the search box

Incredible 500 Glass Negative Collection Staffordshire c1905 - 18

They should, by rights, go into an archive so everybody should get the chance to see them

Terry

[Sepoy]

Nice.....

Now where did I leave my wallet!

[Steve Bramley]

Wow! I agree with Terry. I'd love to find something similar but by Templeman, Stoke-on-Trent.

[johnboy]

Get on to the county council and remind them of the upcoming centenary and their chance to get a bit of local history.

[Terry Carter]

For my 60 birthday my family bought me a limited edition piece of art signed by Ronnie Wood. Its worth a couple of grand. I have offered him a straight swap. I doubt he will be interested though

Terry

[Seadog]

Can someone please post a link to the auction site as Google does not return the info. By the way it is not as simple as saving them so everyone can see them for prints will have to be made or the originals scanned and converted to positives before such items can be viewed. Here is an example of just one such glass neg converted: Cropped as the original is square in format.

Norman

[Dragon]

Norman - just go to the most famous online auction site you can think of and paste "Incredible 500 Glass Negative Collection Staffordshire c1905 - 18" into the search facility. There are five results.

To acquire all five at Buy It Now would cost an archive organisation £3475 or a negotiated deal. Not an unthinkable price. They're not just WW1; they're far wider social history and I agree with Terry that splitting is a terrible shame.

I wonder whether Staffordshire County Council Archives know about them. It would seem to fit with their Collecting Policy and their Acquisitions Policy. I will inquire.

Gwyn

[Seadog]

My post was just an example of such a glass neg. The problem for a ptivate buyer is just how are you to recoup the price of the collection, yes you could produce and sell prints if the negs are of a suitable technical standard and are interesting enough but that market is pretty well covered already. Why are we playing guessing games with the auction site for I have posted links to such sites and as far as I am aware there is no problem with doing so.

Norman

[RaySearching]

Link

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=Incredible+500+Glass+Negative+Collection+Staffordshire+c1905&LH_Auction=1

Edit having read Gwyn's reply to Normans request

Moderating team please remove this post if you feel it is necessary

regards Ray

[Dragon]

Why are we playing guessing games with the auction site for I have posted links to such sites and as far as I am aware there is no problem with doing so.

Norman

Because we have been requested not to identify sellers or their items in case adverse comments cause legal hassle for the moderating team.

I think we know that scanning glass negs takes time. Once bought someone or an organisation can do it at their own pace.

Gwyn

[Dragon]

Get on to the county council and remind them of the upcoming centenary and their chance to get a bit of local history.

I did. On the specific point of acquiring 'a bit of local history', Staffordshire Archives made a large selection of Fowke glass negative photographs in 1973 on the closure of the successor business. They have a collection dating from c.1890-c.1930, containing about 2000 photographs. They suggest that "the ones put up for sale now must be the residue that was not selected at the time". (Thanks to the Duty Archivist, 29.8.13)

Gwyn

[Seadog]

Link

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=Incredible+500+Glass+Negative+Collection+Staffordshire+c1905&LH_Auction=1

Edit having read Gwyn's reply to Normans request

Moderating team please remove this post if you feel it is necessary

regards Ray

Thanks Ray I now understand the trepidation of those regarding publishing the link. I did not however connect this with EBay but with the other ones such as Christies etc. Hopefully the members can be trusted to behave with this thread. The images look superb.

Norman

[David Filsell]

I would have thought this was worth bringing to the attention of the National Army Museum

[Seadog]

It just gets better having scrolled down the description I see that it states that all the sitters are named at the base of the negative this just makes the collection even more desirable.

Norman

[Derek Black]

Why not a purchase for the I.W.M.? Certainly not the kind of thing that will crop up again.

Derek.

[Terry Carter]

There are 2500 glass negatives... but how many are WW1 related? The seller does not say. He has got in touch with me to say that Staffordshire County Museum were not interested.

Terry

[Seadog]

I see that there were predictably no bids for the individual lots and I assume that they all remain unsold. Perhaps the seller will consider selling the WW1 images in smaller lots of perhaps 50 which would in my view be more appealing to potential buyers

Norman

[Tony Cox]

I had about a hundred of these glass negatives, got them of Dominique at Pozieres some seven years ago, I think most of them came from a barn in Warloy Ballion.

I scanned them all,here are a few,when I get time I will post some more ,very interesting .

Tony