893
fancy goods fi rm with outlets in both London and Paris.
The French base of the fi rm was connected to Auguste
Marion, who published several works on photography
from the late 1850s onwards, often with particular refer-
ence to the paper used in the printing process. In 1856,
an advertisement in the London Post Offi ce Directory de-
scribed the fi rm as “Stationers, importers of fancy goods
and photographic papers.” Based at 152 Regent St and
14 Cité Bergère, Paris, Papeterie Marion were, at this
stage, still primarily importers of French luxury goods.
They sold photographic paper alongside all varieties of
decorated mourning and wedding stationery (their fi rst
advert for photographic paper in The Times was June
30, 1854). Their subsequent growth was a product of
the commercialisation of photography during the late
1850s, and is a testimony to the high-quality albumen
prints required by photography.
Marion and Company is often credited with introduc-
ing the carte-de-visite to Britain in 1857. They were the
market leaders in the supply of celebrity photographs, a
position that lasted for several decades. Throughout this
period, they were located at 22–23 Soho Square, and
they later had their own factory at Southgate in Middle-
sex. Marion and Company, a wholesale house, acted as
both as a central supply point and as a distribution hub
for many major photographers, including John Jabez Ed-
win Mayall, Camille Silvy, and the Southworth Broth-
ers. Mayall was reputed to have been paid £35,000 by
Marion and Co. during the 1860s for his carte-de-visite
of the British royal family. The fi rm stocked thousands
of celebrity photographs of every kind, in preparation
for sudden changes in demand such as the death of a
well-known fi gure. An article in Once a Week by Andrew
Wynter described how Marion and Company made the
celebrity carte into a modern phenomena:
This house is by far the largest dealer in cartes de visites
in the country; indeed, they do as much as all the other
houses put together. The wholesale department of this
establishment, devoted to these portraits, is itself a sight.
To this centre fl ow all the photographs in the country that
“will run.” Packed in the drawers and on the shelves are
the representatives of thousands of Englishwomen and
Englishmen awaiting to be shuffl ed out to all the leading
shops in the country. (Andrew Wynter, Subtle Brains and
Lissom Fingers, 304)
Marion and Co. were instrumental in turning the
carte-de-visite into a general consumer artefact. In 1862,
their London manager, Mr. Bishop, stated that 50,000
carte-de-visite passed through the fi rm’s hands every
month. In later years they published their own sets of
pictures such as “Marion’s Series of Eminent Political
Men” (24 × 18 inches and sold for between one and
three guineas).
Marion and Company sold a wide range of pho-
tographic equipment and apparatus, particularly
photographic albums and paper. The success of the
carte-de-visite went hand-in-hand with the growing
popularity of photographic albums for collecting celeb-
rity and family photographs. Similarly, carte-de-visite
themselves had to be pasted onto cards, which were
often printed with the photographer’s name on the
reverse, often with additional decoration. Marion and
Company’s expertise as stationers and sellers of fancy
good made them ideally suited to supply the burgeoning
trade in printed photographic product. As the century
progressed though, they slowly expanded their range
of good, particularly in the 1880s and 1890s when the
advent of dry plates helped to make photography ac-
cessible to a large number of amateurs. In 1884, they
were advertising a complete beginner’s set for £2 10s.
By 1896, the cheapest “Nonpareil” introductory set
was only 30 shillings. It came complete with camera,
a dozen plates, lens, tripod, focusing cloth, and all the
necessary solutions.
In 1884, Marion’s Practical Guide to Photography
was published, specially written for the use of amateurs.
It was republished in 1885, 1886, 1887, and 1898, and
was one of most successful photographic handbooks. A
review in the British Journal of Photography declared
that the book dealt “in a lucid and practical manner with
the various operations connected with every department
of the science while the Queen similarly noted that “A
great many ladies practise photography, and they will
appreciate the instructions here given.”
At the same time as it tapped into the market for
amateur photography, Marion and Co. continued to sup-
ply the professional studios with equipment like scenic
backgrounds (£0 50s in the 1880s) and retouching ap-
paratus. The fi rm supplied the latest apparatus by most
other major photographic manufacturers, such as lenses
by Ross, Voigtländers and Dallmeyer. However, it also
took out several patents in its own name. In the 1880s,
these included Marion’s own “Parcel” detective camera,
which had plates 4¼ × 3¼ inches, and was disguised as
a parcel through being covered with brown linen paper
and tied with string.
One technique that was re-introduced to great effect
by Marion and Co. was the Cyanotype. In 1881, the
fi rm reintroduced it under the name of the “Ferro-Prus-
siate or blue process.” The process was used to make
cheap reproductions of drawings, patterns and plans,
and became popularly known as the “blueprint.” The
fi rm sold prepared papers to government departments,
shipbuilders, railway companies, and architects.
Unsurprisingly, the fi rm remained especially pre-emi-
nent in the supply of all forms of stationery connected
to photography, particularly albums, printing paper and
all types of card mounts. Its photographic mounts won
a gold medal at the L’Exposition Universelle in 1878
and a silver medal at the London Inventions exhibition