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tions in Bristol, Cheltenham, Liverpool, Nottingham,
Brighton, Bath and Manchester. Two further studios
were opened in London in 1842—one in King William
Street, and the other in Parliament Street, the former
being managed by Beard’s eldest son, Richard Beard
Jnr. from about 1846.
The granting of exclusive licenses permitted Beard
to charge high prices to his licensees, and enabled them
to extract high returns from their investment. As some
photographers paid over £1000 for their licenses, a con-
siderable return was essential. The lack of competition,
however, considerably restricted the growth of photogra-
phy in England. Beard aggressively prosecuted breaches
of his patent rights through a number of celebrated court
cases, but there can be no doubt that the exclusivity of his
establishments worked against the public interest. Even
some of those Londoners who could afford to have their
likeness made, complained about the time involved in
waiting to be photographed, and in 1846 he eventually
agreed to license more studios.
Years ahead of his time in the thinking behind such
franchise agreements, Beard controlled the manufacture
sale and distribution of the equipment and materials
which accompanied professional portrait photography
—including cameras, frames, mats (overlays), preserv-
ers, and cases. Approved products were identifi ed with
the words “Beard Patentee”—embossed on the faces
of frames or brass mats and on printed labels inside
morocco cases. There is evidence that some of his
cases and their fi ttings were made for him by Thomas
Wharton, a Birmingham manufacturer whose involve-
ment with case-making predated photography. A small
number of the “Patentee” labels bear Beard’s original
signature in blue ink, perhaps identifying himself as the
photographer. Beard’s 1842 Patent No.9292 described
a method of hand-tinting the daguerreotype—already
within a year after the fi rst studio opening, the absence
of colour had been identifi ed as a shortcoming of the
new process. The procedure was based on proposals by
Johann-Baptiste Isenring.
By 1845 he was entering into concession agreements
with photographers who could use the process without
buying a license, in return for a share in the profi ts,
and by the 1849, he was legally bankrupt, although
whether by business failure or business planning re-
mains open to debate. Later studios in Manchester and
Liverpool traded under the partnership name of Beard
and Foard, and it remains uncertain whether this was
Richard Beard or his son Richard Beard Jnr. He was
also a partner in a London studio, Sharp & Beard, in
the later 1850s.
He appears to have retired completely from photog-
raphy by 1858, and applied himself to a range of other
business opportunities until his death.
John Hannavy
Biography
Richard Beard was born in Devon in December 1801,
the second of six children, four of whom did not survive
beyond their mid-teens. He joined the family grocery
business in Newton Abbott and while still in his early
twenties, was effectively in charge. He moved to London
in 1832 and went into partnership with a coal merchant,
establishing Pope, Beard & Company, later to become
Beard & Company. With his wife Elizabeth, he had six
children, the fi rst of whom, Richard Jnr, followed him
into photography. After leaving photography, he lived
for many years in Hampstead, London, where he died
on June 7th 1885.See Also: Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé; and
Niepce, Joseph Nicéphore.Further Reading
Flukinger, Roy, (Wood, R. Derek, Ed.) “Beard & Claudet: A
Further Enquiry” in The Daguerreotype—A Sesquicentennial
Celebration, London: Gerald Duckworth, 1989.
Heathcote, Bernard V. and Pauline F., “Richard Beard: an Inge-
nious and Inventive Patentee” in History of Photography v.3,
4, 313–329, London: Taylor & Francis, 1979.
Heathcote, Pauline F, (Pritchard, Michael, Ed.), “The First Pho-
tographic Portrait Studios in Great Britain: Professional Foun-
dations” in Technology & Art—the Birth and Early Years of
Photography, Bath: The Royal Photographic Society, 1990.
Jacob, Michael G., “A Visit to Mr. Beard’s” in The Daguerreian
Annual, Pittburgh: The Daguerreian Society, 1994.
Jacob, Michael G., “Color and the Daguerreotype” in The
Daguerreian Annual, Pittsburgh: The Daguerreian Society,
1997.
Wood, R. Derek, “The Daguerreotype in England; Some Primary
Material Relating to Beard’s Lawsuits” in History of Photog-
raphy, v.3, 4 305–309, London: Taylor & Francis, 1979.BEATO, ANTONIO (c. 1830–1903)
Itinerant photographerFor many years, historians believed that a photographer
by the name of Felice Antonio Beato had photographed
extensively throughout Japan, China, Egypt and the
Holy Land. This error came about as a result of the two
brothers Felice Beato and Antonio Beato signing some
of their works with a composite name.
Antonio Beato worked with his brother for several
years, opening a studio with him in Calcutta c.1858.
By 1862 he had set up a studio in Cairo, with another
studio in Luxor opening a decade later. His work was
sold widely to those travellers who undertook the Grand
Tour of Egypt from the 1870s until the end of the nine-
teenth century.
Beato’s Egyptian images are distinctively different
from those of Francis Frith. While Frith concentrated on
the grandeur of the antiquities, in Beato’s images people