Redshaw portraits

Sitting for a likeness

PORTRAIT STUDIES BY WILLIAM REDSHAW
OF YOUNG LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WITH PROSPECTS
AS WELL AS SOME OF THE ALREADY MARRIED

Portrait photographs were a speciality of William Redshaw and those who could afford it flocked to his studio in North Street to have their likeness taken. The reasons were usually to add to the family album, vanity and, as in the case of many unattached young ladies, the prospect finding a husband for a happy and successful marriage.

The giving of a photograph to a male friend implied an acceptance that the relationship was a serious one and might eventually lead to the altar and Redshaw did his best to present the young ladies in the most favourable light. They always arrived in their Sunday best and his studio was equipped with various backdrops and artefacts for the sitters to enhance the setting. He also took photographs of married couples, perhaps to celebrate a silver or golden wedding or a special anniversary.

A set of proofs showing his work from the Victorian and Edwardian eras has survived, taken more than 100 years ago but lost after his death in 1943. The glass negative plates used in the photographic process were later discovered by the late Peter Sellars who ran a business as a florist and nurseryman from Redshaw's former premises at No 37 North Street. They were copied and preserved by the late Martin Frisby-Boor, chairman of the Bourne Family History Society, and after he died in 2005, they were passed on to the Heritage Centre for safe keeping and from them I have compiled this small collection of hopeful ladies. The pictures also included several young men, fewer in number than the women, and I have also selected some of them as evidence that not all males were reluctant bridegrooms. There are also some photographs of those who were already married.

Miss Hobson