Policeman, Bendigo, early 1880s.

A$275 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Albumen print photograph, cabinet card format, 165 x 108 mm (mount), recto and verso with imprint of Bendigo Portrait Rooms, F. De Kock Co., Photographic Artists, Corner of Mitchell and King Streets ; the print and mount are both in fine condition. A rare 1880s portrait of a uniformed member of the Victoria Police possibly with the rank of Constable taken in Bendigo by Frederick De Kock. Museums Victoria holds a copy photograph made from a negative in private hands, which is a portrait taken by Richards Co., Ballarat, of a policeman wearing an identical uniform and helmet. Its catalogue entry provides a tentative ID of Ward, Constable (?) , and dates the photograph to around 1880. Davies Stanbury ( Mechanical Eye ) list Frederick De Kock at Sandhurst only from 1888. However, this information is incorrect, as Frederick was running his studio there from at least as early as 1882: his cabinet card and carte de visite commemorating the death of Rev. Dr. George Henry Backhaus in Bendigo in September, 1882, for example, which both have the same imprint as our policeman cabinet card ( Bendigo Portrait Rooms, F. De Kock Co., photographic artists, corner of Mitchell and King Streets ) were registered for copyright at the Victorian Patents Office on 14 September, 1882.

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.