Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/edwin-marchant

Birth Place

Colyton, Devonshire, England, UK

Biography

Edwin Marchant was one member of a large family of South Australian photographers. He was a brother of Philip Marchant and his son, George Lionel Marchant, also became a photographer of note. Edwin ‘Ned’ Marchant was born in Colyton in Devonshire, England, on 9 December 1849, and was eleven years of age when he came to South Australia with his family, arriving at the Semaphore anchorage on 17 February 1861. From the Semaphore jetty the family walked over the sandhills to Port Adelaide. They then made their way to Gawler where the father, John Marchant, was to manage the Victoria flour mill. After unsuccessfully trying his luck on the Victorian goldfields he spent some time at Brisbane before returning to Adelaide where he worked in his father’s Light Square flour mill. In 1875 he learnt the art of wet-plate photography in the studio of his brother Philip Marchant, and may have worked there until May 1879 when he advertised in the Northern Argus: ‘E.W. Marchant, from Adelaide, is now at Clare, and will remain two weeks or more if inducement offers’. His studio, probably a tent, was ‘adjoining Main Street’, and sufficient ‘inducement’ must have materialised as he was still there in July when the Argus reported: We are pleased to notice that Mr Marchant’s studio in Clare is well patronized by the public. He is very successful in the art, his photos being much admired. Previous to coming to Clare many people were prejudiced against travelling photographers, who from time to time visit the place. Mr Marchant has shown that as far as he is concerned there can be no ground for prejudice, for he has by his work proved himself to be a first class artist. By the end of March 1880 Edwin Marchant had completed and opened ‘new and substantial portrait rooms’ in the Main Street of Clare, opposite Gray’s Hotel (now Bentley’s Hotel). Here he advertised, ‘Portraits copied or enlarged to any size, and finished in oil or water colours. Animals and residences photographed’. Edwin Marchant’s brother Philip manufactured dry-plates and was offering them for sale by August 1880 under the name of Adelaide Instantaneous Dry Plates, and it would have been these plates that Edwin was using in December 1880 when he advertised: ‘Instantaneous portraiture. Children photographed in any weather by the instantaneous dry process’. He also stocked his shop with albums, Berlin wool, homeopathic medicines, organs, pianos, accordions and concertinas, and was repairing musical instruments as a sideline to his photography business. On 22 August 1881 Edwin Marchant married a Clare girl, Catherine Hooper, and in November 1882 their son, George Lionel Marchant (q.v.) was born, who, like his father, became a photographer. The couple had five children while at Clare, but two of their daughters died at an early age. Edwin Marchant’s photograph of the triumphal arch which had been erected to welcome the Governor in September 1884 was described as a picture ‘well worthy of a place in anyone’s album’, and his photograph of Kimber’s six-horse team leaving the Clare preserving works on 1 April 1885 was called a ‘faithful representation of the load, the factory, and surroundings, the whole making a capital picture’. While at Clare he produced a number of stereoscopic views of Clare and a folding panorama of the town made of five cabinet-size sections with tape hinges. His studio narrowly escaped destruction by fire in January 1896 when an oil lamp which had been left burning in his darkroom overheated. It was only through the prompt action of a man who happened to be on the premises that a disastrous fire was averted, the main damage being a burnt window and door frames and the loss of a large number of photographic plates. Six months later Edwin Marchant was holding a clearance sale of stock as he was about to leave Clare, and he advertised his ‘dwelling house, studio and shop to let after July’. By September 1896 the studio had been taken by the local tinsmith, Solomon Williams, an amateur photographer who had become a part-time professional. Edwin Marchant was listed as a photographer at Petersburg (Peterborough) in the directory for 1896, which would have been printed six months before he closed his Clare studio. He had been to the Peterborough district two years before leaving Clare, photographing the scene of a train accident at Orroroo and the foundation stone ceremony for the Petersburg Town Hall additions in 1894. While at Petersburg he also had a branch studio in Jamestown. Edwin Marchant moved to Kadina in 1904 where, assisted by his son George, he operated a studio in Taylor Street under the name of E.W. March & Son. By 1910 George had married and moved to Adelaide, and in October 1912 the Wallaroo Times reported that ‘Mr E.W. Marchant, who has been in business in Graves [?] Street, Kadina for about 10 years, contemplates retiring and will take up his residence on one of the [Adelaide] suburbs in a few weeks’. However, it appears Edwin Marchant did not retire as he was listed as a photographer at 5 Hughes Street, North Unley, in 1914. This listing as a photographer continued until 1935, which must be as error as he was an invalid for ten years before his death on 20 June 1932. Text taken from:Noye, R.J. (2007) Dictionary of South Australian Photography 1845-1915, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. CD-ROM, pp.195-96. Writers: Nerina_Dunt Date written: 2013 Last updated: 2013

Born

b. 9 December 1849

Summary

Part of a large family of photographers, Edwin Marchant emigrated from England to South Australia in 1861. His main interest was in portraiture, where he was skilled in several techniques including wet-plate and dry-plate photography.

Gender

Male

Died

20-Jun-32

Age at death

83