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The workshop of Benedetto Boschetti (1820-1870) was renowned for the exceptional quality of its marble work 'after the antique'. From his premises at 74 via Condotti in Rome, Boschetti supplied extremely high quality works of art to satisfy the academic and sophisticated tastes of young Englishmen on the Grand Tour. His work was widely praised and he was awarded a medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. The most celebrated examples of his work today are a mosaic table depicting the Triumph of Cupid in the Gilbert Collection, London, and the fine reductions of the Warwick Vase, in rosso antico now in the Toledo Museum, Ohio.

The main British firm of chromolithographic printers. William Day (1797-1845) set up the firm in c. 1824. From c. 1831 traded as Day & Haghe (Louis Haghe, 1806-1885). Haghe left to devote himself to watercolour in the 1850s, where after the firm continued as Day & Son under William Day the younger (1823-1906), also referred to as WJ Day.

Edward Leigh (1913-1998)

Working Dates: 1946 -1983

One of the few professional photographers to obtain a prestigious Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society as well as a Fellowship of the Institute of British Photographers, the professional photographers' own body, Edward Leigh has been described as a true artist with a camera. His photographic career spanned over 50 years. Before WW2 he worked as a fashion photographer and a stills cameraman for Fox Film Studios, later 20th Century Fox. During the war his printing skills were employed by RAF Oakington to process at great speed the aerial recognisance photographs which were assembled into the mosaic maps used by Bomber Command.

After the war Edward set up his own studio on Kings Parade in the centre of Cambridge, living on the premises. Edward did a great deal of work for University Departments and Cambridge Colleges, from groups of freshers to graduation ceremonies, visiting Royals to portraits of fellows and, one of his many favourite assignments, work for the Peyps Library at Magdalene College. Many of his architectural photographs have been used for decades in books on Cambridge. He was a much sought after industrial photographer, skilled in the use of lighting and good at composition.

When Edward retired, his son John Edward Leigh took over the business, still at 22 Derby Road, Cambridge, which he listed as specialising in advertising photography, for a short period around 1983-85, before the business finally closed.

Working for Edward Leigh at different times were Doug Rattle, Peter Lofts and Frank Bird.

French lithographic printer, based in Paris.

Photographers

Father and son publishers of the same name, the father b. in Cologne, and active in Paris from 1608-c.1666, the son c.1623-1694, who continued the business. Their products are impossible to distinguish, and are catalogued here under the one name.

Stearn and Sons took rowing photographs until 1970 when they joined with Eaden Lilley who then took over taking these photos. Jet Photographic then took up the work where Eaden Lilley left off. Please contact the proprietor is you need a copy of any photograph (https://jetphotographic.com)

Took over the firms of Eden Lilley and Lafayette Photographers.

https://www.lafayettephotography.com/about

Little is known about the French clockmaker and bronzier Raingo, who almost certainly apprenticed in Paris circa 1790. He moved to Belgium, circa 1800, probably for political reasons, and from the signatures on some of his clocks, it is known that he worked in Gand and Tournay. Later, in 1823, he is recorded as being clockmaker to the duc de Chartres. The company became Raingo Frères in 1825 and thereafter clocks bear their signature with various Paris addresses. They had a workshop workshop on Rue Vielle du Temple in 1829, and from 1840 to 1850 in Rue de Saintonge. After 1860 they moved again back to Rue Vielle du Temple where they started sell bronzes. noted for the quality of their gilding and chasing. The firm exhibited at many of the important exhibitions of the second half of the 19th century, including London in 1862, and was known for the fine quality of its ormolu in particular their superb gilding and chasing.

Lettice Ramsey (née Baker, 1898 -1985) was a graduate of Newnham College, Cambridge, and she married Cambridge mathematician and philosopher, Frank Ramsey (son of A.S. Ramsey, President of Magdalene College) in 1926. Frank died in 1930 and Lettice looked for a new way to support herself and her two young daughters. In 1932 she set up in the photographic business with Helen Muspratt, a Dorset photographer who had trained at Regent Street Polytechnic in London. Lettice had the Cambridge contacts to get the firm work while Helen had the photographic skills and experience.

In 1937 Helen Muspratt moved to Oxford and set up a second studio for the firm there. While the partnership continued, Helen ran the Oxford Studio and Lettice the Cambridge one.

Nicholas Lee took over the business in 1978 when Lettice retired. The business was then purchased by Peter Lofts in 1980. There is an extensive indexed negative collection from the firm in the Cambridgeshire Collection, deposited by Peter Lofts after he bought up the business.

Ramsey and Muspratt are best known for their portrait work. Their sympathetic, well lit images quickly made the firm fashionable, photographing the up and coming and influential throughout the 1930s, including Anthony Blunt and Virginia Woolf. The firm also undertook a wide range of commercial photography.

Thomas Stearn (1825 - 1905), a Cambridge tailor, founded this firm of photographers around 1866. Later he ran the firm with his wife Eliza trading as 'Mr and Mrs Stearn'. Later still he took his sons Frank b:1856, Harry Cotterell b:1860, and Walter James b:1865 into the business, trading as Messrs Stearn and later as Stearn and Sons.
After Thomas died the business was run by his sons. Harry Cotterell Stearn died in 1906. Another son, Gilbert Stearn b:1866, was involved in the business at least until 1917. Walter James Stearn died in 1929. Thomas's niece, Edith was also involved with the firm.

Stearn’s operated throughout its history from 72 Bridge Street Cambridge, narrowly avoiding the loss of their premises in a fire in their darkroom in 1898. From 1908 to 1920 local directories also listed premises at Brunswick Terrace Cambridge. At some point between 1939 and 1943 the firm was taken over by A. H. Leach and Son, a well established and growing photo processing business based at Brighouse in Yorkshire.

A new limited company, Stearn and Sons (Cambridge) Ltd, was formed in April 1943, neither the shareholders not the Directors were from the Stearn family. During the period 1942 to 1950 the firm’s processing work was done by A. H. Leach in Brighouse. In 1966 A. H. Leach was taken over by an advertising company, Hunting Surveys, until the Leach family bought the business back from them in 1999. From 1968 the new company, Stearn and Sons (Cambridge) Ltd, did not trade on their own account but acted as agents of their holding companies. In 1970 the Cambridge firm joined Eaden Lilley Photographers.

Stearn and Son took most of the rowing photos until the late 1960's when they joined Eaden Lilley Photographers. Cambridge Central Library have a lot of the original negatives from 1942-1950. The copyright of the photos taken by Eaden Lilley has now passed to Lafayette Photography.

Vincent Brooks, Day & Son was a major British lithographic firm most widely known for reproducing the weekly caricatures published in Vanity Fair magazine. The company was formed in 1867 when Vincent Brooks bought the name, good will and some of the property of Day & Son Ltd, which had gone into liquidation that year. The firm reproduced artwork and illustrations and went on to print many of the iconic London Underground posters of the twenties and thirties before being wound up in 1940.