The Postcard
A Reality Series postcard published by A. and G. Taylor of 70, Queen Victoria Street, London E.C. The card is a genuine Silver Print photograph, with photography by Bassano.
The card was posted in Cricklade, Wilts. on Saturday the 2nd. November 1907 to:
Miss Packer,
Stanshawes Court,
Chipping Sodbury.
The message on the divided back was as follows:
"Dear Sister,
We are coming Monday.
We are both well and hope
you are.
I have heard nothing of E.S.
I quite thought you would
have told M.Y. this morning
what I wanted to know but
Mac forgot it.
D.P."
Alexander Bassano
Alexander Bassano, who was born Alessandro Bassano on the 1st. May 1829 in London, was an English photographer who was a leading royal and high society portrait photographer in Victorian London.
Biography of Alexander Bassano
Alessandro Bassano was the second youngest child of Italian Clemente Bassano, originally a fishmonger of Cranbourne Street, later an oilman and warehouseman of Jermyn Street, London, and his English wife, Elizabeth Browne. He later anglicised his first name to Alexander.
Bassano received early artistic training with artists Augustus Egg and William Beverley. He opened his first studio in 1850 in Regent Street. The studio then moved to Piccadilly 1859–1863, to Pall Mall and then to 25 Old Bond Street in 1877. There was also a Bassano branch studio at 132 King's Road, Brighton from 1893 to 1899.
The Old Bond Street studio was decorated with carbon photographic prints and plaster busts, and was large enough to accommodate an 80-foot panoramic background scene mounted on rollers, which provided a variety of outdoor scenes or court backgrounds.
He took portraits of William Ewart Gladstone and monarchs such as Queen Victoria. Bassano's head of Lord Kitchener formed the basis of the Great War recruiting poster 'Your Country Needs You'.
Bassano retired from work at the studio around 1903, when the premises were extensively refurbished and relaunched as "Bassano Ltd., Royal Photographers".
The studio moved once again in 1921: a move written about by the Lady's Pictorial at the time. The article reported that about a million negatives, all systematically numbered, had to be moved from the cellars of the premises to the new location at 38 Dover Street.
The company became "Bassano and Vandyk" in 1964. The following year it incorporated Elliott & Fry, a photographic partnership that had been running in Baker Street since 1863. In 1977, the company became "Industrial Photographic", based at 35 Moreton Street, SW1.
Over 40,000 negatives from the Bassano Studios, including some by Alexander Bassano, are held in the National Portrait Gallery, London. The Museum of London holds a large number of the fashion-related plates.
The National Portrait Gallery held an exhibition of his work, 'Alexander Bassano: Victorian Photographer' in 2013, the centenary of his death.
The Personal Life and Death of Alexander Bassano
Alexander married Adelaide Rose Ainslie Lancaster (1825-1906) in 1850. They had a son, Clement George Alexander (1853-1899), and two daughters, Adelaide Fanny Louise (1850-1921) and Camilla Teresa ('Lily') (1859-1928).
Portraits of his wife and children are held in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Alexander died at the age of 84 on the 21st. October 1913 in West Acton, London.
Louisa Bassano
Alexander's sister Louisa Bassano was a noted singer and teacher. Louisa toured with the pianist Franz Liszt during his visit to the British Isles in 1840-1841.
She also sang the mezzo recitatives in the first English performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah conducted by the composer.
She was known as Miss Bassano until she married Frederick George Boddy Esq. in 1849, from which time she became known as Madame Bassano.
Her husband died in 1853. She later taught singing, and was a member of the Royal Society of Musicians.
William Spottiswoode Trevor
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 2nd. November 1907 was not a good day for William Spottiswoode Trevor, because he died in Newport, Isle of Wight aged 76 on that day.
William, who was born in Calcutta, British India on the 9th. October 1831, was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Educated at Addiscombe Military Seminary, Trevor was 33 years old, and a major in the Bengal Engineers, Bengal Army during the Bhutan War when the following deed took place on the 30th. April 1865 at Dewan-Giri, Bhutan for which he was awarded the VC in a joint citation with Lieutenant James Dundas:
'For their gallant conduct at the attack on the Block-house at Dewan-Giri, in Bhootan, on the 30th of April, 1865.
Major-General Tombs, C.B., V.C., the Officer in command at the time, reports that a party of the enemy, from 180 to 200 in
number, had barricaded themselves in the Block-house in question, which they continued to defend after the rest of the position had been carried, and the main body was in retreat.
The Block-house, which was loop-holed, was the key of the enemy's position. Seeing no officer of the storming party near him, and being anxious that the place should be taken immediately, as any protracted resistance might have caused the main body of the Bhooteas to rally, the British force having been fighting in a broiling sun on very steep and difficult ground for upwards of three hours, the General in command ordered these two Officers to show the way into the Block-house.
They had to climb up a wall which was 14 feet high, and then to enter a house, occupied by some 200 desperate men, head foremost through an opening not more than two feet wide between the top of the wall and the roof of the Block-house. Major-General Tombs states that on speaking to the Sikh soldiers around him, and telling them in Hindoostani to swarm up the wall, none of them responded to the call, until these two Officers had shown them the way, when they followed with the greatest alacrity. Both of them were wounded'.
William later achieved the rank of colonel, and retired in February 1887 with the honorary rank of major-general.
He is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery.
William's Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Engineers Museum.
