1247
SAWYER, JOHN ROBERT MATHER
(1828–1829) AND CHARLES (1861–1914)
English photographers
John Sawyer was born in Sheffi eld, but started his ca-
reer as an optician in Norwich. He opened a studio on
Regent Street, London in 1871 with Walter Strickland
Bird (1828–1912), later admitting Edward William Fox-
lee (1832–1913) to the partnership. At the same time,
the partners took an interest in the recently established
Autotype Company, operating out of Ealing.
In January 1873 John Spencer (manager of the
chemical department), and Bird bought out the Com-
pany together with its London Gallery at 36 Rathbone
Place, St. Marylebone. A modifi cation by Sawyer of
the carbon process was patented in 1874, as “fl exible
temporary suppor,t” paper coated with gelatine rendered
insoluble by means of chrome alum, followed by a
second coat in soda and borax. Sawyer’s son Charles
joined the Company shortly before his father’s ill health
forced a premature retirement. John Sawyer died at sea
in sight of Naples harbour January 21 1889, while on
a health cruise.
Charles was sole manager of the Autotype Company
after Bird’s mental health deteriorated, forcing him to
retire in 1900. Sawyer, whose main interest had always
been with the technical manufacture of the carbon
printing, himself died prematurely after a long illness
September 22, 1914.
David Webb
SAWYER, LYDDELL (1856–c. 1908)
English photographer
When the photographer Lyddell Sawyer joined the
Brotherhood of the Linked Ring in November 1895, he
took the pseudonym of ‘Sheriff.’ Despite having been
one of the original ‘secessionists’ from the Photographic
Society of Great Britain (today the Royal Photographic
Society) in 1891, the association which became known
as the Linked Ring was three years old before he for-
mally became a ‘link.’
Originally from the north east of England—he is
believed to have been born in Sunderland, and to have
worked in a professional studio in Newcastle before
establishing his own studio in the town in 1885—‘Lyd’
Sawyer had quickly earned for himself the reputation
as one of the fi nest ‘art photographers’ in late Victorian
England, and was a friend of such other eminent prac-
titioners as Frank Meadow Sutcliffe and Henry Peach
Robinson. From 1896 he operated a portrait studio in
Regent Street, London.
Given the importance of his contribution to the
development of photography as an art, surprisingly
little is known of his life and work. A staunch advocate
of the idea that a photographer should ‘make’ rather
than ‘take’ pictures, his images have a lyrical narrative
quality.
His images appeared in several infl uential publica-
tions, including Sun Artists (vol. 4), 1890, and Pho-
tographs of the Year, the published catalogue of the
Photographic Society’s 1891 exhibition, with a text by
H P Robinson.
He left the Linked Ring in 1901, and continued to
operate a studio in Maida Vale until at least 1908.
John HannavySAXTON, JOSEPH (1799–1873)
American Photographer
Joseph Saxton is credited with creating the oldest extant
American-made photographic image. Taken from his
window at the Philadelphia mint where he served as
curator of weights and measures, the daguerreotype
captured the cupola of Central High School and a por-
tion of the State Armory building on a silver plate used
to cut coin blanks. The actual date of the image has been
disputed as several accounts of the Daguerre’s process
were available in the United States in September and
October of 1839. The earliest published reference to
Saxton’s daguerreotype is a description that appeared
in the United States Gazette on October 24, 1839.
Best known as a talented machinist, instrument maker
and inventor, Saxton constructed and improved upon
a wide variety of scientifi c and practical devices. He
was a member of the American Philosophical Society,
the Franklin Institute, and the National Academy of
Sciences. Born in Huntington, Pennsylvania on March
22, 1799, Saxton spent his early career in Philadelphia
employed as a clock and watchmaker. He lived in
London for nearly a decade where he was affi liated
with the Adelaide Gallery of Practical Science before
returning to Philadelphia in 1837 to accept the posi-
tion at the mint. He served as chief mechanic in the
Offi ce of Weights and Measures of the U.S. Coast
Survey from 1843 until his death on October 26, 1873
in Washington, D.C.
Jenny AmbroseSAYCE, B. J. (1837–1895)
The name of B.J Sayce fi rst came to national prominence
within the photographic community with the publication
of the paper ‘Photography Without a Silver Nitrate Bath’
in The British Journal of Photography on September
9th 1864. That article effectively marked the end of
the wet collodion era and prefaced the dawn of modern
photographic materials.