Industry Photography Founded Oxford | Date founded June 1860 Headquarters Dorney Reach, Maidenhead | |
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Hills & Saunders was one of the leading Victorian photographic firms, started as a partnership between Robert Hills & John Henry Saunders. They were social photographers with studios at different times in: London (society), Harrow & Eton & Rugby (locations of leading schools), Oxford & Cambridge (leading universities), Aldershot & Sandhurst (army). They were successful (photographers to the royal family e.g. Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom with some items still in the Hills & Saunders photos in the Royal Collection.), but ultimately unsuccessful at a business level with a number of branches failing and only their two main school branches (Harrow & Eton) continuing well into the 20th Century. Ultimately the Harrow photos remain saved by the school and now in private hands and the images can be seen at Iconic Photographs and the name continues in the Eton branch. Once one of the bigger / more prestigious Victorian photographic studios, little now remains.
Studios
London Studios
1868-1869 - 48 Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, Kensington
1868-1886 - 36 Porchester terrace, Bayswater, Kensington
1893-1895 - 47 Sloane Street, Chelsea
Negatives / records believed destroyed
Studio no longer exists
Harrow Studio
1861 - first recorded date in records
1865 - first advertisement
Closed in the 1980s
Negatives / records still exist - and can be found at Iconic Photographs
Eton Studio 1864-1894
to date.
still going - Hills & Saunders is owned currently by Richard Shymansky ABIPP, AMPA and is now based in Dorney Reach, Maidenhead, but is still the Eton studio.
Negatives / some of the records believed destroyed
Rugby Studio
dates unknown - listed on CDV as a studio
Negatives / records believed destroyed
Studio no longer exists
Oxford Studio
1856-1935
Taken over by Gillman & Soame in Oxford 1931
Negatives / records believed destroyed
Studio no longer exists under original name.
Cambridge Studio
Dates unknown but bankrupt by 1892
Negatives / records believed destroyed
Studio no longer exists
Aldershot Studio
1865-1879
Negatives / records believed destroyed
Studio no longer exists
Sandhurst Studio
Dates unknown
Negatives / records believed destroyed
Studio no longer exists
Yorktown Studio
Dates unknown
Negatives / records believed destroyed
Studio no longer exists
Evidence of the existence of the Aldershot & Yorktown and other studios can be found here: http://whowerethey.wordpress.com/category/photographer/hills-saunders/