Charles Ireland .... Chorlton resident and Manchester photographer ….. by Eric Krieger

The posting on this blog, back in March this year, of a story relating to Charles Ireland, a Manchester photographer, caused me to look into my collection of Manchester items. 

I knew that I had an example of Charles’s portrait work, and also a photographic portrait made by his father, Edward. 

What prompted my interest was the fact that Andrew had seen no images due to Charles, other than the one of the Palais de Luxe cinema that features in his original post.

My example of Charles Ireland’s studio work is a standard postcard portrait from the early decades of the twentieth century, of which many similar photographs survive. 

What sets this apart from most others, is not the actual photographic image but the back of the card. This has an eye-catching design with, for example, the stamp square in the form of a picture frame. 

Many other such cards just printed the photographer’s details on the back of the card in one line of basic type.

By the Edwardian age, picture postcard sending and collecting had become a national, and international, craze. As part of this phenomenon, photographers were able to buy photographic postcard stationery. 

That is, photo-sensitive printing card, cut to the regulation size of postcards, with standard postcard backs. 

Some photographers used these to produce local views of events, streets and buildings. These could be sold directly by the photographer, or supplied to stationers or newsagents for general sale. This photographic postcard stationery was also used for portraits, just intended for the family album. Such was probably the case with my example.

The photograph by Charles’s father, Edward Ireland, is in the form of what was known as a carte-de-visite. 

These were small photographs stuck onto stiff card backs, of which the photographer would have supplies specially made for that particular studio. 

The backs were generally used to promote and advertise the photographer. These cartes were popular from the 1850s for about fifty years. 

In the example illustrated here, possibly from the 1880s, the studio address is given as 17 Piccadilly. This was on the corner of Oldham Street. We are also informed that it was across from the Royal Infirmary, demolished by 1910 and later to become Piccadilly Gardens. 

The 1883 trade directory reveals that Edward also had studios on Market Street and Oldham Road, Newton Heath. This latter location fits in with Charles’s birthplace as determined by Andrew’s research. By 1895, he was listed as a “photographer and photographic materials dealer” at 25 Lower Mosley Street, a business continued by his son.

Eric Krieger © 2020

Location; Manchester

Pictures; from the collection of Eric Krieger