Blaze Studio Bristol BS1 5BB

Saturday 10th May - Saturday 24th May
Opening times Tues-Sat 10.30am – 5.30pm

The pictures shown here are just a few from a large number of glass plates discovered in the attic of a house belonging to an aged relative of mine who died in 1988.

For over five generations, the Gascoigne-Simpson family owned Bumforth Manor, a crumbling draughty pile of dubious architectural merit near Grantham in Lincolnshire. These plates have languished, undiscovered, for over a hundred years in a lead-lined oak chest which bore the initials S.H.G.S. They are undoubtedly the work of my Great Grandfather Samuel Heracles Gascoigne-Simpson (1839-1910), who was a disciple of William Henry Fox Talbot - widely considered to be the Father of Photography.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fox_Talbot).

Gascoigne-Simpson experimented during the mid to late 1800’s with advanced photographic techniques and portraiture. His book Homo Eccentrica was self published in 1896, but was later removed from the shelves after booksellers and libraries found the inks used to be ‘still active’.
S.H.Gascoigne-Simpson was known to have developed the 'transient puff' method of moving liquid light sensitive silver mercury emulsion via the use of a vacuum air blower onto the surfaces of electrically charged zirconium alloy plates. This often dangerous and explosive process actually received a patent in 1876, but it was later withdrawn after several technicians were said to have changed colour after handling the highly toxic and unstable materials.

From the early 1860's up until his death in 1910, the family seat of Bumforth Manor was Gascoigne-Simpson's studio and laboratory. Friends, relations, dignitaries, servants, local land-owners, land workers, clergy, eccentrics, oddballs, degenerates and the unfortunate all found themselves (sometimes even against their will) clamped into place in his drawing room studio under the unblinking glare of his 'brass eye'.

It is my intention as curator & custodian of The Bumforth Manor Collection, to restore as many of these plates as possible and to make a limited edition set of archival art prints available for sale in order to fund this ongoing project.

The family penchant for photography continues through the generations and with the assistance of a Psychic Medium, I have been able to contact my Great Grandfather from beyond the grave for guidance in continuing his artistic vision.

N.J.Simpson
Photographer, Curator and Custodian of the Bumforth Manor Collection.

www.bumforthmanor.com