Bedford Lemere & Co.
1872 (ca)
Album No. 1, Photographs taken from Specimens in Royal Architectural Museum [Ludlow and other Churches. Poppy-heads]

Albumen print
10 x 12 cm
 
Victoria and Albert Museum
Accession number: 76389
 
Curatorial description (2 April 2022)
The galleried display areas of the Royal Architectural Museum located in Tufton Street were covered with casts of sculptural details taken from Gothic buildings, including the cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris and Westminster Abbey. By the 1970s, Bedford Lemere & Co. was granted permission to photograph the RAM collection, winning an award for the series at the 1873 International Exhibition at Vienna.
 
The photographs are mostly of casts; many of them are identified (Chartres, Rouen, Amiens, St. Albans, Wells, Hereford, Ely, Lincoln, etc). The casts include capitals, bosses, finials, brackets, rosettes, spandrels, etc. Many of the photographs are enhanced by signs wired onto the wall stating the source of the cast and name of the photographer. Bedford Lemere & Co. catalogue numbers scratched into the negatives are also occasionally visible. They were sold as sets (either mounted or unmounted), or singly, and marketed to architects, students and 'art-workmen'.
 
The V&A took a leading role in the reproduction of art works to serve as models for artists and designers. When the South Kensington Musem (as the V&A was first known) was established in 1852, casts and photography were regarded as an essential part of the collection. They were viewed as educational tools, extending the visual resources of the Museum to artists and students of art and design.
 
The South Kensington Museum purchased from Lemere two duplicate sets of 30 unmounted photographs on 18 January 1873. The selection appears to made to order rather than a pre-selected set seen in volumes in other collections. A later purchase was made 10 June 1875 of two duplicate sets of 60 unmounted photographs (again with a made to order selection).
 
LL/119359