One of the joys of photo collecting is the discovery of an item for which you’ve been searching and that suddenly appears for sale.
In my case, my research into the firm of W. & D. Downey of South Shields, Newcastle and London introduced me to its carte-de-visites, a format in which it excelled from the late-1850s.
But whilst I’ve known it produced ‘3D’ stereoscopic views from about the same point in its history, I’ve never seen any examples of its stereocards.
That is until this week when two emerged for sale on a well-known auction site.
Hardly able to believe my good fortune, they were both captioned on the verso “St. Mary’s Cathedral, Newcastle-upon-Tyne” and boasted the credit “W. & D. Downey, Photographers, 9 Eldon Square, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.”
I wrote an earlier blogpost about a Downey carte-de-visite of the city’s Anglican cathedral church, St. Nicholas, with its distinctive lantern tower (December 7th 2022).
But before this week, I knew little its Catholic counterpart, St. Mary’s, apart from having walked past it a few times on exiting Newcastle central railway station.
Opened in 1844, St. Mary’s was designed by the architect Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852).
Pugin is perhaps best-known for his work on the interior of the House of Commons in the Palace of Westminster.
The first of the Downey stereos I have purchased features the Rood Screen and Crucifix at St, Mary’s which date from 1853.
The second is taken beyond the Rood Screen and is a close-up of the altar with its highly ornate design.
The likely dating of these stereos points towards the summer of 1864 when Downey copyrighted a number of photographs of St. Mary’s.
Then followed advertisements in the local press offering both stereos and carte size photos of “Newcastle: Its Streets, Churches and Public Buildings.”
Naturally, I’m delighted to add these Downey stereos to my collection of the company’s photography and look forward to learning more about its 3D endeavours.
Pressphotoman 
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