Lovell Reeve & Co.

Lovell Reeve was born in 1814 at Ludgate Hill. He started his working life as grocers apprentice at the age of 13. However his passion was natural history particularly conchology (the study of shells) and it was his knowledge in this area that led to a Fellowship in the Linnaean Society. The Linnaean Society also assisted in the publication of first book Conchologia Systematica in 1841. In1848 he left his partnership selling natural history specimens to concentrate on publishing. He was a keen supporter of the educative and documentary value of photography, particularly stereo photography, and in 1858 he published the first book illustrated with stereo photographs Tenneriffe: an Astronomers Experiment. Piazzi Smyth.

In 1858 he also started a new publication The Stereoscopic Magazine. There are 132 stereo photographs from this in the Macleay collection. The Stereoscopic Magazine came out monthly at a cost of 2 shillings and sixpence containing 3 stereo photos, with descriptive letterpress. The Stereoscopic Magazine was only published for seven years as Lovell Reeve died in 1865. The Stereoscopic Magazine contained images from some of the better-known British photographers of the time including; Roger Fenton, Ernest Edwards, Robert Howlett, H. Taylor, as well as a number of lesser known photographers, Captain Henry, L. J. Sissons, while another group are simply referred to by their initials; H.C.M., H.T.W., C.P.C.

Complete listing of the stereo magazine

• Fenton Roger
• Edwards Ernest
• Howlett R.
• Taylor H.
• Captain Henry
• Sissons L. J.

Reeve not only published work in his Stereoscopic Magazine he also sold the same stereo photographs mounted on card. In 1999 Tex & Joleeta Treadwell (of the Institute for Photographic Research) kindly sent me a copy of the Lovell Reeve & Co.’s catalogue of stereographs issued in 1863. This catalogue listed the works by Roger Fenton, Captain Scott and other unnamed photographers mounted on card for ordinary stereo viewers and available for the price of one shilling each.

The images in Stereoscopic Magazine are 70 x 70 mm and stuck onto pages approximately 142 x 224 mm. This large page size meant they were unable to be fitted into standard viewers of the period and instead Reeve designed special folding stereoscopes adapted for use in books for 3 shillings & 6 pence each. Initially Negretti & Zambra made the book viewers for Reeve but he was unhappy with their quality changed company. These are probably the ones advertised in 1863.

The stereo photographs were mounted on one page while the other page contained descriptive descriptions of the images. Amy Stark in her article on Lovell Reeve cites a review in the Art Journal of 1858 which advises that the descriptions accompanying the stereo photos were far too long and would only ensure the views would be cut out for the stereoviews. This appears to have been the case with the images in the Macleay Museum for the page sizes vary slightly and there is no accompanying text with any images.

The Catalogue also listed a number of books illustrated with photographic vignettes or stereographs including Sketches in India, The Conway in the Stereoscope and Narrative of a Walking Tour in Brittany.