479
career in photography. The remainder of his collection
was donated to the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers,
New York.
Michelle Anne DelaneyELLIOTT, JOSEPH JOHN (1835–1903) &
FRY, CLARENCE EDMUND
(1840–1897)
Photographers
On 29 July 1862, professional photography in the United
Kingdom was given a boost by the passing of the Fine
Arts Copyright Act, which gave statutory copyright
protection to photographs for the fi rst time. If the pho-
tograph was made for or on behalf of someone for a
‘good or a valuable consideration,’ the person giving the
consideration (such as the proprietor of a photographic
studio, who paid his photographer) was the owner of
the copyright.
Moreover, by asking a celebrity to pose for his or her
portrait without payment a studio could obtain images
that could be sold for a profi t to a public fi lled with the
craze for collecting cartes de visite. The studio portrait
company of Elliott & Fry was founded in 1863 to take
advantage of these developments, and subsequently
became one of the most prestigious such fi rms in the
country, taking photographs for and selling images of
royalty and the aristocracy, political, military and naval
leaders, and the stars of sport, music and the stage.
Joseph John Elliott was born in Croydon in 1835, the
son of John Elliott and Mary his wife, the daughter ofThomas Brown. Clarence Edmund Fry was born in Plym-
outh in 1840, the son of Edmund Fry and Caroline Mary,
nee Clarence. Clarence Fry had a sister, Lucy Elizabeth
born in Plymouth in 1844, who in 1864 married Joseph
Elliott in Brighton. How they had met is not known, but
it is clear that the connection between the photographic
partners was more than a purely professional one. The
marriage was followed by the birth of six children, the
third of whom, and the eldest son, was Ernest who later
succeeded his father in the company when Joseph died in
1903 at his home in Hadley Green near Barnet. Clarence
Fry lived in Watford; he died in 1897.
The photographic company was based throughout
the later nineteenth century at 55 Baker Street, at
premises known as the Talbotype Studios, using the
name popularly given to William Henry Fox Talbot’s
calotype process. From perhaps as early as 1870 it also
had a printing works in Barnet, near where the Elliotts
lived at the time. This was responsible for production
of silver and carbon based prints for clients and for
commercial sale.
Sadly little is known about the company since its
surviving records were destroyed by bombing during the
Second World War. The most detailed information about
it comes from an article in The Photographic News in
January 1880, which described a visit to the Baker Street
premises by H Baden Pritchard, who was shown around
by Clarence Fry himself. There were three studios at this
time, with east-facing window lights and top lights, one
small and used mainly for vignettes, the others larger and
equipped with a variety of painted backgrounds from
which clients could choose. In each studio the cameraELLIOTT, JOSEPH JOHN & FRY, CLARENCE EDMUND
Elliott, Joseph John. Before the Ball.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © The J. Paul Getty Museum.Hannavy_RT72353_C005.indd 479 7/5/2007 11:18:11 AM