Lot Essay
There is considerable confusion and variation in contemporary and later accounts of Rudge's work and his relationship with William Friese-Greene, normally reliable sources such as Eder give incorrect information. Recent research is now beginning to assess Rudge's work and importance.
J. A. R. Rudge was an instrument maker working in Bath and took an interest in the new inventions of the Victorian period. He was an accomplished lanternist, an inventor and patentee of numerous devices and was the first person to bring both electric light and X-rays to the city.
His work relating to cinema seems to fall in three distinct phases. He started in 1862 using a device similar to the Ross Wheel of Life lantern slide (see Coe) with which he would have been familiar through his interest in giving shows. By 1875-1876 he had created his Biophantic lantern which carried seven slides with an intermitant mechanism to hold the picture still and a front shutter.
He met William Friese-Greene (now acknowledged as a pioneer of British cinema) in 1880 and the two were to collaborate in developing Rudge's Biophantic lantern further. Rudge undertook the technical work while Friese-Green helped with the photography. In 1887 Rudge screened a series of twelve photographs of `a boy in an Eton collar' these were taken on a single plate although there is some confusion as to how they were projected.
In 1889 Friese-Greene made two demonstrations of projecting machines (precisely what they were is obscure) to the Photographic Society in London. Rudge, himself, showed a machine to the Bath Photographic Society in 1890 which used a pair of twin lenses which projected photographs alternatively from two rotating discs. One machine was later sold to a Birmingham showman and another was acquired by Will Day and is now in the Cinématheque Franaise. The device was, according to Rudge, invented by him and sold to Friese-Greene. Again, there is confusion over exactly what was bought but it is known that Friese-Greene at some point bought Rudge's four-lens machine and possibly one other. From this time on Friese-Greene began to develop his own ideas based on the Rudge machine and his direct association with Rudge seems to have ended.
These plates appear to relate closely to Rudge's Biophantoscope, although descriptions of the device vary. The Photographic News report describes a `new instrument' which he exhibited at the Bath Photographic Society in Bath at the end of May 1890 which required `two discs, on each of which six photographic portraits of the same person are printed; the discs rotate on their respective pivots...The discs and photographs resemble those obtained with Stirn's camera, but are of larger size; the apparatus used with the lantern is also employed when taking the negatives so that when the latter are printed as positives on another circular sheet of glass, [so] they are certain to be in true register...The machine exhibited by Mr Rudge last Wednesday night was not quite finished, and as the positives were not ready, he had to employ negatives instead; it served, however, to explain the principles involved. He is making this machine for Mr [Friese-] Greene.
One of the subjects of the plates in this lot appears to be the same and wearing identical clothing as the subject in a pair of Biophantoscope plates held by the Cinématheque Franaise and formerly in the Will Day collection. Their format, though, is different. It has been suggested that the subject is Edgar Rudge, John Rudge's nephew.
Christie's acknowledge the assistance of Peter Carpenter in providing information for this catalogue entry.
J. A. R. Rudge was an instrument maker working in Bath and took an interest in the new inventions of the Victorian period. He was an accomplished lanternist, an inventor and patentee of numerous devices and was the first person to bring both electric light and X-rays to the city.
His work relating to cinema seems to fall in three distinct phases. He started in 1862 using a device similar to the Ross Wheel of Life lantern slide (see Coe) with which he would have been familiar through his interest in giving shows. By 1875-1876 he had created his Biophantic lantern which carried seven slides with an intermitant mechanism to hold the picture still and a front shutter.
He met William Friese-Greene (now acknowledged as a pioneer of British cinema) in 1880 and the two were to collaborate in developing Rudge's Biophantic lantern further. Rudge undertook the technical work while Friese-Green helped with the photography. In 1887 Rudge screened a series of twelve photographs of `a boy in an Eton collar' these were taken on a single plate although there is some confusion as to how they were projected.
In 1889 Friese-Greene made two demonstrations of projecting machines (precisely what they were is obscure) to the Photographic Society in London. Rudge, himself, showed a machine to the Bath Photographic Society in 1890 which used a pair of twin lenses which projected photographs alternatively from two rotating discs. One machine was later sold to a Birmingham showman and another was acquired by Will Day and is now in the Cinématheque Franaise. The device was, according to Rudge, invented by him and sold to Friese-Greene. Again, there is confusion over exactly what was bought but it is known that Friese-Greene at some point bought Rudge's four-lens machine and possibly one other. From this time on Friese-Greene began to develop his own ideas based on the Rudge machine and his direct association with Rudge seems to have ended.
These plates appear to relate closely to Rudge's Biophantoscope, although descriptions of the device vary. The Photographic News report describes a `new instrument' which he exhibited at the Bath Photographic Society in Bath at the end of May 1890 which required `two discs, on each of which six photographic portraits of the same person are printed; the discs rotate on their respective pivots...The discs and photographs resemble those obtained with Stirn's camera, but are of larger size; the apparatus used with the lantern is also employed when taking the negatives so that when the latter are printed as positives on another circular sheet of glass, [so] they are certain to be in true register...The machine exhibited by Mr Rudge last Wednesday night was not quite finished, and as the positives were not ready, he had to employ negatives instead; it served, however, to explain the principles involved. He is making this machine for Mr [Friese-] Greene.
One of the subjects of the plates in this lot appears to be the same and wearing identical clothing as the subject in a pair of Biophantoscope plates held by the Cinématheque Franaise and formerly in the Will Day collection. Their format, though, is different. It has been suggested that the subject is Edgar Rudge, John Rudge's nephew.
Christie's acknowledge the assistance of Peter Carpenter in providing information for this catalogue entry.