Directory of Early Photographers in Suffolk, Studio Notes, Frederick Hunter and Other Sudbury Photographers

Frederick Pet(t)r(e)y HUNTER, Mr MATTHEWS, James WRIGHT, Samuel WRIGHT

Frederick Pet(t)r(e)y HUNTER (1830-1868) was born in Lincoln, the son of James Pettrey Hunter (1791-1867), a portrait painter. James was born in Steynton (Pembrokeshire). In 1841 James and his family were living in Old Market, Wisbech. By 1851 they had moved to South Everard Street, South Lynn, Norfolk and Frederick was an artist, and his younger brother, Henry, was a gilder. It seems likely that both were involved at that point with their father in a family business. In 1855 Frederick married Julia Woolley at Saffron Walden, Essex and they had two children there in 1858 and 1860.

By 1857 James Hunter had moved to Sudbury, Suffolk and we can get a good idea of his artistic business from his advertisement in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press on Thursday 21 May 1857 p1:

"PORTRAIT PAINTING, At Mr. Garrad's, Grocer, Sepulchre Street, SUDBURY, NEAR THE CHRISTOPHER INN. Mr. HUNTER, Sen., ARTIST, late of 39, Leicester Square, London, MOST respectfully solicits inspection of his much admired CRAYON PORTRAITS, in the now prevailing style, and which he takes in very short sittings. Life size from one Guinea each, smaller sizes as low as 10s. each. Miniatures on Ivory, for Brooches, Lockets, &c, Portraits in Oil (all sizes), on remarkably moderate terms. The likenesses warranted. Ladies and Gentlemen attended at their own residences. Durable Pictures in oils, Water Colours, or Crayons, from Photographs or Daguerreotypes. Lessons given in Water Colour or Crayon Heads."

The advertisement was repeated over the next few weeks, then on 16 July 1857 the advertisement indicated "for a short while longer". James Hunter was a talented artist and The British Museum has a small number of prints of his work https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG165829

By April 1861 Frederick, his wife and two young children, were living at Market Hill, Sudbury, Suffolk and his occupation was shown as a photographic artist. It is not known whether at this point Frederick was employed or working on his own account. The 1861 census shows Frederick as the only photographer on Market Hill Sudbury, but there had been photographers operating on Market Hill before and after this date. The earliest advertisement in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press, Thursday 30 August 1855 p1, stated that James WRIGHT, bookseller, printer and stationer, Market Hill, Sudbury had opened a photographic room on the Market Hill. Then in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press on 24 July 1856 an advertisement announced that a Mr MATTHEWS was offering, at Mr Wright's Portrait Room, Market Hill Sudbury, for a short time only, collodion portraits from 2s 6d each. The Newspaper described Matthews as a man "whose reputation stands high in his profession as a photographic artist". This was possibly William Matthews, listed as a Bury St Edmunds photographer in our main Suffolk listing and mentioned by Bernard and Pauline Heathcote, "A Faithful Likeness" p.95. Matthews continued to advertise in Sudbury until September 1856. From May to August 1857 different advertisements appeared in the local press in the name of James Wright, Photographic Rooms, Market Hill Sudbury offering three different sizes of portraits, each in three different styles of frame, at prices from one to five shillings each.

The Suffolk and Essex Free Press, 2 July 1857, p.3, reported on a bazaar held at Market Hill Sudbury in aid of the Church Missionary Society, and noted that Mr. S. WRIGHT was present and taking photographs of the band and groups of visitors listening to music. Samuel WRIGHT, possibly the brother of James Wright, was a dealer in sheet glass, a glass cutter, brass founder and manufacturer of coal gas, on Market Hill Sudbury. Advertisements for picture framing at Samuel Wright's "Photographic Establishment" on the Market Hill Sudbury appeared in the local press in November 1859 (Suffolk and Essex Free Press 17 Nov. 1859 p1). Then in 1860 S.Wright advertised portrait photography at his "Photographic Rooms, built expressly for photographic purposes ... replete with every convenience for the production of first class portraits either on glass or paper" (Suffolk and Essex Free Press 28 June 1860 p.1). Samuel Wright was still operating as a photographer in Sudbury in 1867 when a young employee of his was in trouble with the law having made an insulting version of a customer's carte de visite. Local directories record Samuel in Sudbury in 1865 and 1868. So, it seems likely that at some point Frederick Hunter operated from Samuel Wright's establishment. But the first example carte de visite below, of an unknown man with neck beard, proves that at some point Frederick operated in Sudbury in his own name. This has Frederick's name in a garter design printed on the reverse and although it does not specify a studio address, it does carry the location "Sudbury Suffolk". The next two cartes de visite from the 1860s by Frederick simply carry his name and do not give a studio location (Thanks to Ron Cosens www.cartedevisite.co.uk for permission to use these images). No entries have so far been found for Frederick Hunter in the Directories of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk or Cambridgeshire, suggesting either that he was mainly an employee or that he may have moved location relatively frequently. Frederick died in Saffron Walden in 1868.