Joseph Cundall (22 September 1818 – 10 January 1895) was a Victorian English writer under the pseudonym of "Stephen Percy", a pioneer

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

and London publisher of

children's books A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

. He provided employment for many of the best artists of the day by using them as

illustrators An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complica ...

. Joseph was the

son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...

of Eliza and Benjamin Cundall, a draper. He trained as a printer in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

, and aged 16 found work in London with Charles Tilt, a bookseller and publisher. He wrote two books for Tilt and succeeded N Hailes in 1841 at the Juvenile Library, 12 Old Bond Street. In 1848 he started a lending library for children called St. George's Reading Library. In 1843 Cundall became publisher of the ''Home Treasury'' children's books, a series conceived and edited by

Henry Cole Sir Henry Cole FRSA (15 July 1808 – 18 April 1882) was a British civil servant and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in the 19th century in the United Kingdom. Cole is credited with devising the concept of ...

under the pseudonym ''Felix Summerly''. Cole, who was later knighted, became the first director of

South Kensington Museum South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

which later changed its name to the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

. In 1848, he transformed the antagonist in "

The Story of the Three Bears "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" (originally titled "The Story of the Three Bears") is a 19th-century English fairy tale of which three versions exist. The original version of the tale tells of an obscene old woman who enters the forest home ...

" from an ugly old woman to a pretty little girl in his ''Treasury of Pleasure Books for Young Children''. Because of his association with Henry Cole, his early

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

ventures were successful, but by 1849 he had gone bankrupt. During the same year he started a partnership with H M Addey and moved his business premises to 21 Old Bond Street. This partnership dissolved in 1852 and Cundall moved to 168 New Bond Street, where his interest in photography started and where he founded ''The Photographic Institution'' and was a founder member of the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

of London. His partners included

Robert Howlett Robert Howlett (3 July 1831 – 2 December 1858) was a pioneering British photographer whose pictures are widely exhibited in major galleries. Howlett produced portraits of Crimean War heroes, genre scenes and landscapes. His photographs include ...

(1831–1858) (famed for his iconic portrait of

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...

), George Downes (1812–1877) and

Philip Henry Delamotte Philip Henry Delamotte (21 April 1821 – 24 February 1889) was a British photographer and illustrator. Delamotte was born at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, the son of Mary and William Alfred Delamotte. Philip Delamotte became an artis ...

(1821–1889) who, in 1853, held what was the second photographic exhibition in Britain and photographed the reconstruction of

The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibit ...

at Sydenham in 1854. Cundall is noted for his photographs detailing the construction of the

SS Great Eastern SS ''Great Eastern'' was an iron sail-powered, paddle wheel and screw-propelled steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and built by John Scott Russell & Co. at Millwall Iron Works on the River Thames, London. She was the largest ship ev ...

between 1854 and 1856, and his portraits of ''

Crimean Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

Heroes'' in 1856. In 1871 the British Government sent Cundall to

Bayeux Bayeux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados Departments of France, department in Normandy (administrative region), Normandy in northwestern France. Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts ...

to manage the first photographic record of the Bayeux Tapestry. Cundall's photographic business traded at first as ''Cundall, Howlett & Co'', then ''Cundall, Howlett & Downes'' and between 1866 and 1872 as ''Cundall & Fleming''.Ruari McLean, ''Joseph Cundall, A Victorian Publisher''. Pinner, Middlesex:

Private Libraries Association The Private Libraries Association (PLA) came into being in 1956 when 18-year-old Philip Ward wrote a letter to the ''Observer'' inviting booklovers and book collectors to attend a meeting to discuss the setting up of an association whose aims would ...

, 1976, He married Sarah Ranson in 1845 (she died in 1868) and then Emily Anne Thompson (who died in 1911).

References

Bibliography

* Ruari McLean, ''Joseph Cundall, A Victorian Publisher''. Pinner, Middlesex:

, 1976 SBN SBN 900002-13-1 * Joseph Cundall, ''A Brief History of Wood-engraving from its Invention''. 1895.

External links

* *
Works by Joseph Cundall
at

Toronto Public Library Toronto Public Library (TPL) (french: Bibliothèque publique de Toronto) is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2008 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other pu ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cundall, Joseph 1818 births 1895 deaths English publishers (people) Writers from Norwich Businesspeople from London English writers English male writers 19th-century English businesspeople