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BUCKLE, SAMUEL (1808–1860)
Active in photography in Peterborough from at least
1851 and in Leamington from 1853, Buckle is undoubt-
edly a pioneer though his reputation never really became
evident due to his ill-health in the later 1850s. He built
at the rear of his house in Leamington a ‘laboratory’
presumably a combination of camera workshop and
studio. From an early stereo photograph by Buckle this is
clearly a purpose-built three-storey brick structure quite
unlike other modest or temporary glasshouse studios in
Britain: if this is the case it is one of the earliest example
of a substantial structure purely erected for photographic
purposes in Britain.
There is some evidence directly linking Buckle with
H.P. Robinson: they lived only ten minutes apart and
they were both in contact with Joseph Glover, a local
publisher and bookseller, so this connection warrants
further investigation. Robinson must have been well
aware of Buckle as a photographic pioneer and could
even have received instruction from him. Robinson
does not appear in Buckle’s account book but there are
references to J.D. Llewellyn, Henry White, G.S. Not-
tage, Marion & Co., and P.H. Delamotte as well as a
series of photographic equipment suppliers including
Ross. Buckle exhibited extensively, and amongst over
fi fty of his topographical images contained within two
unpublished albums in the National Media Museum,
Bradford, are several of his widely-exhibited images.
One album contains a beach view showing Buckle with
Sir David Brewster and ‘Mr Roslyn.’ The other album
also contains two prints of glassware on shelves taken
by Fox Talbot.
At least fourteen original prints exist at Peterbor-
ough Library, others are in Rugby Library and others
will exist in Warwickshire archives. The Wheatstone
Papers at King’s College London contain stereo views
by Buckle.
Despite a few advertisements, there is no evidence for
any commercial portrait work so he is an example of how
‘new money’ could attain ‘gentleman’ and ‘amateur’
status within one generation. This shift is signifi ed by
his fashionable Leamington address after having spent
much of his life in Peterborough or Cambridgeshire.
Buckle’s usual medium was the calotype but it is clear
from Fox Talbot correspondence that this had changed
by 1858. Buckle tells him “I work now—when I do take
a picture at all—by the Collodion Albumen Process...
Portraits I never take nor can I tolerate any but those
which are corrected by subsequent painting. Views
have not relief enough for my artistic eye and pure
untouched Photographic Portraits are great distortions,
as you are fully aware” (Fox Talbot correspondence 6
May 1858).
No evidence exists of a photographic career prior to
the calotype prints exhibited at the Great Exhibition of
1851 which received a Council Medal—but since he
used Whatman paper with a 1849 watermark earlier
work is possible. The Council medal may have brought
him to the notice of Prince Albert who acquired nine
calotype prints in 1854. Thereafter he exhibited over
140 prints in London, Dundee, Glasgow, and Birming-
ham between 1852 and 1857. From advertisements and
his account book it is apparent that Buckle made and
sold his own lightweight cameras for paper or glass
negatives and that he gave instructions in calotype
photography.
All known views by Buckle were produced before
1857 and almost all are topographical using the pic-
turesque conventions of the period. These views are
among the earliest to survive for the areas he covered in
Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire and Warwickshire
but he also is known to have travelled in the Glouces-
tershire, the Isle of Wight, Sussex and Wales. Thirty of
his views were privately published in Calotype Pictures
by Samuel Buckle with a printed list of subjects. Prince
Albert’s copy of this was sold at Sotheby’s 1 July 1977
(Lot 171) with a paper label ‘Prince Albert’s Library.’
What is certain is that purchases of prints by Buckle
were certainly made by Prince Albert by 1854 since
they are included in a list of prints acquired from Eduard
Baldus and Antoine Claudet among others.
His only other photographic reputation relates to the
1855 “Buckle Brush” for coating calotype paper. Apart
from a few advertisements and just one obituary there
appear to be no other references to Buckle in any of the
post-1854 photographic journals—it appears that his
“long and painful illness” meant that his photographic
activities ceased at the very point where he may have
become better known.
Ian Leith
Biography
Samuel Buckle was born in Orton Longueville, Hunt-
ingdonshire [now near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire]
14 September 1808 [christened 2 October]. His father
was the famous jockey Francis Buckle, and the family
inherited a substantial brewery in Peterborough which
was managed by Samuel Buckle from about 1841 until
its sale in 1853. He married Anne Ball at St John the
Baptist church in Peterborough 1845 and had moved
to Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire by December
1853 where he lived at No.5 Beauchamp Square. Buckle
died in Leamington 30 May 1860 leaving an estate
including property valued under £5000. His tomb is in
Brunswick Street Cemetery, Leamington.
See Also: Robinson, Henry Peach; Llewelyn,
John Dillwyn; White, Henry; Marion & Son, A.;
BUCKLE, SAMUEL
