British postcard by J.J. Samuels, London, no. J.S.-2. Photo: Bassano. Constance Collier as Cleopatra in the stage production 'Antony and Cleopatra' (1906) with Hilda Moore.
Constance Collier (1878–1955) was an English stage and film actress and later one of Hollywood's premiere drama and voice coaches. In a career that covered six decades, she evolved into one of London’s and Broadway’s finest tragediennes. Although she appeared in several silent British and American films, her career in the cinema really took off in her senior years when Collier appeared in well-regarded supporting roles in more than twenty Hollywood productions.
British postcard by the Philco Publishing Co., London, no. 3050 A. Photo: Bassano.
British stage and film actress Ada Reeve (1874-1966) was much loved on three continents. She was one of the most popular British singing comedians of all time and was considered to be a headliner in variety and vaudeville. She was endowed with a softness of voice and delicacy of performance that quite set her apart from virtually all of her more raucous contemporaries in the music halls and popularised many memorable songs.
British postcard, no. E1479. Photo: Bassano.
Gabrielle Ray (1883-1973) was a British stage actress, dancer and singer, known for her roles in Edwardian musical comedies. Around 1900, she was one of the most beautiful actresses on the London stage. While wildly popular in the early 20th century, her career dwindled after an unhappy marriage, followed by depression and alcohol abuse. Finally, she was institutionalised in a mental hospital, and stayed there for over 40 years.
British postcard in the Philco Series, no. 2012 D. Photo: Bassano.
English actress and singer Gertie Millar (1879-1952) made her debut at a very young age in a children's show and was the star of operettas and musical comedy in the Edwardian period. Her early career coincided with the rise of this new form of entertainment supported by George Edwardes, the manager of London's Gaiety Theatre and Daly's Theatres. From 1901 to 1910, Millar was a prima donna at London's Gaiety Theatre, starring in a series of musicals composed for her by the couple formed by her husband, Lionel Monckton, a former lawyer and theatre critic, and Ivan Caryll.
British postcard in the Ducal Series, no. 101. Photo: Bassano.
English actress Eva Moore (1870–1955) had a career on stage and in film which spanned six decades. She was active in the women's suffrage movement, and from 1920 on, she appeared in over two dozen films.
Immortalising his subjects at their best and most beautiful
Alessandro Bassano was the second-youngest child of Italian Clemente Bassano and his English wife, Elizabeth Browne. His father was originally a fishmonger of Cranbourne Street, London. Later, he worked as an 'Italian grocer' in Jermyn Street, London. His sister, Louisa Bassano, became a noted singer and teacher. She toured with Franz Liszt, the famous Hungarian pianist and composer, in the early 1840s.
In his youth, Bassano wanted to become an artist and showed interest in both painting and sculpture. He worked and trained in the studio of the painter Augustus Egg and was also an assistant to William Beverley, a watercolourist and theatrical scenic painter. As a young man, Bassano turned his attention to the then-new art of photography. Alessandro anglicised his first name to Alexander.
In 1850, Bassano married Adelaide Rose Ainslie Lancaster (1825–1906). They had a son, Clement George Alexander (1853–1899), and two daughters, Adelaide Fanny Louise (1850–1921) and Camilla Teresa 'Lily'(1859–1928). Portraits of his wife and children are now held in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Already in 1851, he briefly operated his first studio in 57 Pratt Street, Camden Town, St Pancras. After the studio closed a year later, he worked as a clerk at The House of Commons. By 1859, Bassano had resumed his photographic career, becoming a junior partner in the firm of Eastham & Bassano, which operated photographic portrait studios at 122 Regent Street, London and 22 St Ann's Square, Manchester. Bassano's business partner was John Eastham, a veteran photographic artist from Lancashire. Their partnership was dissolved in 1860. Alexander Bassano retained the photographic studio at 122 Regent Street, London, and he brought in another business partner named Thomas Browne. The studio of Bassano & Browne was in business at 122 Regent Street, London, from 1860 until 1865.
From 1860 onwards, Alexander Bassano became one of the most renowned portrait photographers in London. He photographed actors and actresses, singers, opera stars, writers, and members of high society. The Prince of Wales was reputedly the first member of the royal family to visit Bassano's Regent Street studio. Bassano earned a reputation for ‘immortalising’ his subjects at their best and most beautiful. Especially his lightning of the sitters is skilful. He also became known for his ‘cartes de visite’ portraits. His portraits of famous personalities of the day were often subject to piracy - poor copies of Bassano's original cartes de visites being made and sold to the public by unscrupulous rivals.
British postcard by Rapid Photo Co, London, no. 2216. Photo: Bassano.
American actress Billie Burke (1884–1970) is now primarily known as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), but she had an impressive career both on stage and in the cinema, in Britain and the US.
British postcard by Rotary Photo in the Rotary Photographic Series, no. 1875 J. Photo: Bassano. Sent by mail in 1913.
English singer and actress Phyllis Dare (1890-1975) was famous for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and other musical theatre in the first half of the 20th century. She appeared occasionally in films and was one of the leading Picture Postcard beauties of the Belle Epoque.
British postcard in the Rotary Photo E.C., no. 2001 D. Photo: Bassano.
English singer and actress Zena Dare (1887–1975) was famous for her charming, graceful and vivacious performances in Edwardian musicals and comedies in the first decade of the 20th century. Decades later, she again enjoyed great success with her role as Mrs. Higgins in the long-running original London production of 'My Fair Lady'. She also made several appearances on film and television.
British postcard by Davidson Brothers, London, in the 'Real Photographic' series, Series 1997. Photo: Bassano. Sent by mail in 1907.
Denise Orme (1885–1960) was an English music hall singer, actress and musician who appeared regularly at the Alhambra and Gaiety Theatres in London in the early years of the 20th century. Later, she became the Duchess of Leinster.
British postcard by Rotary Photo E.C., no. 175 H. Photo: Bassano. Sent by mail in 1905.
English actress Vesta Tilley (1864-1952) was the most famous and well-paid music hall male impersonator of her day, nicknamed ‘The London Idol’. She was a star in both Britain and the United States for over thirty years. Tilley also appeared in some very early silent films.
Your Country Needs You
In 1876, Alessandro Bassano sold his Regent Street studio to London photographer William Charles Goodfellow. In 1877, he opened a new studio on 25 Old Bond Street that was, for its time, an unprecedentedly large three-storey space. The studio was decorated with carbon photographic prints and plaster busts and was large enough to accommodate an 80-foot panoramic background scene mounted on rollers, which provided a variety of outdoor scenes or court backgrounds. There were several dressing rooms. Sittings were by appointment only and usually lasted for 30 minutes.
From the 1880s onwards, Bassano also photographed many members of the British Royal Family. Some of the best-known portraits of Queen Victoria are his, including the jubilee photograph from 1887. In 1890, he was appointed official photographer to the Queen. Bassano also took portraits of William Ewart Gladstone, the Liberal prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, on four separate occasions between 1868 and 1894, and Cetshwayo kaMpande, the king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1873 to 1884 and its Commander in Chief during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879.
Bassano also had a branch studio in Brighton, at 132 King's Road, from 1893 to 1899. He retired from work at the studio around 1903, when the premises were extensively refurbished and relaunched as Bassano Ltd, Royal Photographers. He died in West Acton, London, in 1913 and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in London. After his death, during the First World War, he gained new fame for a portrait of Lord Kitchener that formed the basis of the First World War recruiting poster 'Your Country Needs You'.
In the 1910s and 1920s, the Bassano studio enjoyed a new heyday with glamorous portraits of stars from the worlds of music, dance and theatre. The studio moved once again in 1921, a move written about by the Lady's Pictorial at the time. The article described about a million negatives, all systematically numbered, which had to be moved from the cellars of the premises to the new location at 38 Dover Street. The company became Bassano and Vandyk in 1964. The following year, it incorporated Elliott & Fry, a photographic partnership that had been running in Baker Street since 1863. In 1977, the company became Industrial Photographic. It was based at 35 Moreton Street.
Over 40,000 negatives from the Bassano Studios, including some by Alexander Bassano, are held in the National Portrait Gallery in London. The Museum of London holds a large number of fashion-related plates. The National Portrait Gallery held an exhibit of Bassano’s work: 'Alexander Bassano: Victorian Photographer' in 2013, the centenary of his death.
British postcard by Beagles' Postcards, no. 237. J. Photo: Bassano.
Doris Keane (1881-1945) was a well-known American theatre actress. During the 1910s, she was successful on both Broadway and the West End with the play 'Romance'. She also starred in the film version, her only film.
British postcard by Rotary Photo E.C., no. 115 C. Photo: Bassano.
British Actor-manager Sir John Martin Harvey (1863-1944) was one of the last great romantic actors of the English theatre. His most famous play was 'The Only Way' (1899), an adaptation of Charles Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities'. 25 years later, he also featured in the film version, as well as in a few other silent and sound films.
British postcard by Rapid Photo Printing Co. Ltd., London, no. 4705. Photo: Bassano.
French dancer and actress Gaby Deslys (1881-1920) (aka Gaby Delys) was an internationally celebrated - and notorious - star of the early 20th Century. She was famous for her extravagant clothes, jewels, and millinery. She had many admirers, most notably King Manuel II of Portugal, and during World War I, she reportedly worked as a spy for the French government. Before her tragic early death, she also made a series of silent films.
British postcard in the Philco Series, no. 3008. Photo: Bassano. Written on the card: Love. Is he not sweet?
Lewis Waller (1860-1915) was best known as a matinee idol in the popular romantic plays of his day. He also worked as a playwright and stage manager and appeared in several films.
British postcard by J.J. Samuels, London, no. 4-8-102. Photo: Bassano. Basil Gill and Constance Collier.
Handsome British stage and film actor Basil Gill (1877-1955) was a popular matinee idol during the 1910s. His stage career included many major roles in plays of William Shakespeare, but also in modern plays. Between 1911 and 1938, he also appeared in thirty-five British silent and sound films.
Sources: John Hannavy (Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography), Constantia Nicolaides (National Portrait Gallery), Brighton Photographers, Wikipedia (English, French and Dutch)
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