Early photograph album c1860-1863 containing c100 photographs of Eton College and Home photographs. Includes an early 1862 (Pre-FA) football team with Robert Seymour Bridges

Early photograph album c1860-1863 containing c100 photographs of Eton College and Home photographs.

Includes an early 1862 (Pre-FA) football team with Robert Seymour Bridges

-Quarto (23 x 18cm). Original cloth boards, half leather, rebacked.

-c100 photos in total - mostly small format carte-de visite but also includes 3/4 page large photos.

-Double opening - one side contains photographs of Eton college from c1860-1863. The other side (inverted) contains "home photographs" of George Dunbar Whatman

- George Dunbar Whatman (1846-1923) was educated at Eton and Exeter College, Oxford and became a banker in London.

Of particular interest are:

1) An 1862 (Pre-FA) photograph of the Eton XI football team including Robert Seymour Bridges.  A very early representation of a football team before the formal codification of Football/Soccer by the Football Association in 1863.

At this time, football was still governed by local school rules. Eton football represented one of the most influential "schools" in the evolution of the modern game, and alongside the Sheffield rules, would be strongly represented in the 1863 Football Association rules which founded the modern game.

In particular the Eton game focused on dribbling, included the offside rule, controlled physical contact, and outlawed hacking and handball (unlike the rival Rugby School rules).

Notably, the 1862 Eton XI includes the poet Robert Seymour Bridges (1844-1930). Bridges attended Eton from 1857-1863 and was aged 18 at the time of the team photograph. He would later become Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom for 17 years (1913–1930).

2) Early Cricket photographs including one demonstrating pupils holding cricket bats in the field outside Eton College, as well as the 1862 cricket team.

3) Early Amateur "Home" Photography by George Dunbar Whatman (1846-1923).

The reverse sequence of the album contains “home photographs” by George Dunbar Whatman (1846–1923), who was educated at Eton and later at Exeter College, Oxford, before becoming a London banker.

One photograph is labelled “First attempt – April 1863” suggesting a personal record of a teenager learning the photographic process.  Many photographs show poor technical skill with under and over exposure, consistent with an early amateur photography learning his craft.