Friday, July 15, 2011

Unknown Gentleman of Dunedin, Hokitika or Greymouth circa 1866

Here is another of the mysterious unknown gentlemen from New Zealand.  The dark halo around the subject suggests that this is a copy of an earlier photo.  Photographers did a lot of copying as part of their business.

The photo was taken by the Tait Brothers, with a printed logo on the back suggesting they operated in Dunedin, Hokitika and Greymouth.  Where this one was taken is anyone's guess.  Maybe not even in New Zealand.

What I can deduce from the photo is that the fellow is wearing a good quality woollen suit coat, which looks clean and newish.  He is a bit of a dude, wearing a very fashionable roll curl on top of his head, and maintaining a good length of curl over his ears. 

He is rather gaunt-looking, with hollowed-out cheeks, possibly from hard physical labour - or perhaps he had been ill.  He has light-coloured eyes, and appears to be aged in mid to late thirties.

Early Canterbury Photographers has a lot of information about the Tait Bros operation, but there is no example of the same style of printed mountboard, so that doesn't help with a date.  The man's hair-style and fashion, though, places the portrait date in the mid to late 1860s.

Again, if you are able to identify this man, please get in touch.

J R Wright of the Melbourne Hotel, Hokitika

James R Wright, mentioned previously at the Victoria Hotel, would appear to be a hotel and entertainment proprietor.    Was he from Melbourne himself, or did he purchase the hotel which had that name already?  Probably the latter.

Does anyone know anything of this James R Wright?  I'm wondering if he could be the Unknown Gentleman of Hokitika - not that I think he is wearing a hotel-keeping outfit, but you never know.

This advertisement appeared in the the West Coast Times from 14 December 1866, page 1.