The Golden Age of Postcards lasted two decades from around 1900 and was partly  fuelled by the work of portrait photographers.

One popular subject was the celebrated violinist Marie Hall (1884-1956), who emerged as a rising star of classical music just as the photographic postcard made its mark.

During a lengthy career, Miss Hall was photographed by many of the leading studios and photographers, invariably incorporating her violin in their portraits.

These included early  portraits taken in March 1903 by Mrs. Henrietta Theonie Burrell of Newcastle on Tyne.

Mrs. Burrell

Fortunately for this researcher, one in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London featured the violinist’s autograph.

This handwriting sample proved invaluable in providing material for this latest post.

Searching various auction sites for other ‘Miss Marie Hall’ photographic postcards, I came across this one.

It was issued by The Philco Publishing Company (derived from Philip Cohen & Company) of Holborn Place, London, W.C.

However, rather than the striking photograph of which more shortly, it was the handwriting on the ‘communication’ and ‘address’ side of this postcard that really excited me.

It pointed towards the identity of its sender … as Marie Hall herself.

The connection to the violinist was underlined by the text, which read: “Just arrived back after rehearsal. I am playing with Mr. Wertheim this time.”

So who was Mr. Wertheim and was he likely to have played a part in Marie Hall’s musical life?

The answer was an emphatic ‘yes.’

From 1904, Siegfried Wertheim was principal viola with the Queen’s Hall Orchestra led by Henry Wood.

It was with Wood conducting the same Queen’s Hall Orchestra that Marie Hall made her London debut in 1903 performing concertos by Paganini and Tchaikovsky.

Given this musical pedigree, a collaboration between Miss Hall and Mr. Wertheim performing duet repertoire for violin and viola would have been a definite crowd pleaser.

The postcard’s addressee – ‘Miss E. Gall’ – even offered a wordplay (‘you’ve got a gall’) directed at Marie’s sister, Eveline, a talented harpist.

As the postcard featured Marie herself, there was clearly no need for her to sign it.

Whilst the card’s postmark of ‘Ipswich’ is legible, the date and time it was sent are not.

More certainty can be attached to the provenance of the Philco postcard, the identity of its photographer and the occasion on which it was taken.

A credit in tiny letters etched into the bottom left-hand corner of the negative provided a clue. It reads ‘Dinham.’

James Charles Dinham (1862-1912) billed his business in Torquay, Devon as ‘royal photographers and camera dealers.’

His ‘royal’ patronage came from photographing the future George V and Queen Mary when, as Duke and Duchess of York, they visited the area in 1897.

More than 40 of his royal photographs and other portraits feature in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp92582/james-charles-dinham?role=art

Thanks to a concert review in the Torquay Times, Dinham’s portrait of Marie Hall can be precisely dated to Saturday 18th February 1905.

That afternoon, she performed at the town’s Bath Saloon before “a large and appreciative audience.”

The review concluded: “Mr. J. C. Dinham secured a photo of Miss Marie Hall.”

Looking at the resulting image, the photographer may well have positioned his subject just outside the concert venue.

Her fur stole and coat offered a stylish way of staying warm on a winter’s day.

Within a few weeks, Marie Hall attracted top billing in a newspaper ad placed by J.C. Dinham & Sons for their “Latest Copyright Portraits.”

The presence in the ad of other leading classical music performers such as violinist Jan Kubelik (1880-1940), who coincidentally mentored Marie Hall, and contralto Clara Butt (1872-1936) suggests Mr. Dinham had both a good ear and a good eye.

Whether he intended to copyright his Marie Hall scoop, he doesn’t seem to have got round to completing the paperwork as no records exist in the National Archives.

Despite this, his postcard portrait of Miss Marie Hall for Philco Publishing appeared in both landscape and portrait sizes.

The latter full-length version shows off her eye-catching  outfit to even better effect.

A second ‘Marie Hall’ post next week explores how the violinist’s image was shaped by another celebrated female photographer best-known for portraying suffragettes.

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