Unidentified photographer / artist
1866, 3 November
Popular Photographs

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Scientic American, New Series, Volume XV, No.19, November 3, 1866, p.299.
 
Popular Photographs.
 
An English writer, in speaking of the sale of popular photographs, says:
 
"A popular singer or actor or a successful prize fighter will sometimes have a run entering into tens of thousands of copies; but the demand will suddenly collapse and their names will be heard no more. Public men, whose names are distinguished in connection with the pulpit, with literature, science or art, or in tho legislature, are In constant demand, notwithstanding that the especial rage of this collection of portraits has within the last twelve months considerably subsided. Royal portraiture is always popular, and perhaps nothing can more strikingly illustrate the loyalty of Englishmen than the constant demand for portraits of members of the reigning family. Just about the period of the marriage of the Prince of Wales, a photographer in Brussels had the good fortune to obtain sittings from the Queen and several members of the royal family, including the Prince of Wales and the Princess Alexandra, and the sale of these portraits exceeded two millions of copies. One photographer alone in this country has, during the last few years, issued upward of half a million yearly of members of the royal family. After the royal family, the popular statesmen are the greatest favorites; Lord Palmerston, during his life and for some little time after his death, being in greatest demand. If the sale of men's portraits afford any indication of the popularity of their principles, it is tolerably manifest that liberalism obtains very strongly in this country, the circulation of the portraits being in the ratio of ten of Gladstone to one of Derby, who is, however, judged by this standard, the most popular of the conservatives. On the other hand, the portraits of Louis Napoleon and Garibaldi have about an equal popularity, the rage for the portraits of the latter being more spasmodic, and of the former more steady. After statesmen, popular literary men and clergymen are most in demand; and after these, men of science and artists; and lastly, popular actors and singers. Bishops seem to circulate by virtue of their rank, the Archbishop of Canterbury having the most extended circulation, while clergymen and ministers are prized only in virtue of their popularity. Mr. Spurgeon was for a time in very large circulation Mr. Binney less extensively, but more constantly."
 
[The quotation comes from The Briitsh Quarterly Review, Volume 44, 372-373.]
 
LL/36003