From the collection of photographer Ambrose Godfrey Batting ( 1880 - 1971 )
Godfrey's
father, Gilbert Batting MPS, ran the family chemist's shop at 98, The New
Parade, Calverley Road, Tunbridge Wells. A substantial business, there were six
assistants and they acted as wholesalers for the other chemist's shops in the
town. The shop also dealt in cameras and every kind of photographic and
darkroom equipment. When Godfrey was 10 years old his father had an
accident and was confined to a wheelchair. From then on, Godfrey and his
younger brother Tom helped out as much as they could, until his father died in
1916, when they both took over the shop; Godfrey was then 36. Godfrey and his
brother Tom spent the rest of their lives living together as bachelors in a
large Victorian house at 69, Upper Grosvenor Road, also in Tunbridge Wells. They
were both avid collectors, Godfrey of cameras and photographs and Tom of
paintings and antiques. Godfrey was an active photographer as early as 1895 and
was still collecting cameras in the 1940s. He had an early interest in using
Lumière Autochromes and appears to have followed developments in early colour
photography with interest. In 1930 he designed a Focusing Lens Holder, Patent
345102, 1930-1931, with examples and associated paperwork included in this
auction.
In due course, Godfrey became the Honorary
Secretary of the Tunbridge Wells Amateur Photographic Association, later
Honorary Vice-President and Honorary Curator of the Tunbridge Wells
Photographic Record Section. Photography was the chosen hobby of the well-off
local gentry. He knew many of the distinguished members, such as Henry
Peach Robinson, Thomas Sims, Francis Smart, Joseph Chamberlain, who assisted
Francis Smart in his darkroom, and Ernest Ashton. He also knew Sir David
Salomons, a renowned early proponent of domestic electric lighting and the
motor car, whose wife was Patroness of the Association in the 1920s. It held
regular meetings at the various grand houses of the members in Tunbridge Wells,
such as Bredbury, which belonged to Francis Smart. After dinner they would have
lectures with shows of lantern slides.
Godfrey and his brother were very advanced in their
ideas and believed in 'natural ' cures rather than chemicals. They were also
very prescient in their dislike of modern inventions, such as washing-up
liquid, that they said would kill all the fishes in the rivers. Although they
had a bathroom in the house they believed hot baths were bad for you and washed
every day with a sponge and cold water. In short, they were classic,
well-educated Victorian eccentrics.
The slide is approximately 8.2cm X 8.2cm or in inches 3.23" X 3.23"