Thomas Nevin’s salt paper stereos at the TMAG

Six of Thomas J. Nevin’s stereographs on salt paper, late 1860s – ca 1870

Series Q1994.56 from The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection

This is a selection of the better reproductions from the TMAG collection.

Some of the other salt paper stereographs (sometimes also called stereoscopes) have either been poorly scanned, resulting in blurring, or the fuzziness may be from deterioration of the original positive image which lies in, rather than on, the salted paper (sensitized with common salt and silver nitrate). The fibrous quality of the salt paper also resulted in a soft glow.

At the Salmon Ponds and Plenty

A Popular Weekend Day Trip and Standard Photographic Souvenir

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection Q1994.56.7

This stereograph by Thomas Nevin of the Salmon Ponds, at Plenty, ca. 1870, held by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is very similar to one by Samuel Clifford. Several views of the upper reaches of the Derwent were taken by Nevin, copied by Clifford, and vice versa.

As Nevin and Clifford were in partnership at one point in their careers, signing the verso of several studio portraits “Clifford & Nevin, Hobart Town“, it is likely that they printed these scenes for the local and interstate tourist trade, sharing their stock of negatives and prints, and that “authorship” was secondary to the successful turnover of the commercial product.

TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.7
ITEM NAME: Photograph:
MEDIUM: sepia stereoscope salt paper print ,
MAKER: T Nevin [Artist];
DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : Salmon Ponds at Plenty near New Norfolk
INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Impressed on front: T Nevin/ photo

The TMAG has another stereo titled “Junction of Plenty and Derwent“, Q1994.56.14, (below) which belongs in this series, at present unattributed and should be attributed to Nevin:

“Junction of Plenty and Derwent Rivers”
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.14

sepia stereo salt paper print , 1870s