Norwood POTTER

The following advertisement appeared in the Observer, 8 December 1849: ‘Daguerreotype. Norwood Potter, from the school of Mons. de Poilly, Montevede, the celebrated French Artist. Portait and Landscape painter by aid of the Daguerreotype, Rundle Street, Adelaide. Artist in electrotype and practical assayer... By his improved process, portraits are taken with equal beauty in any weather, or at any hour of the day.’

In the same issue the Observer said, ‘Judging by Mr Potter’s performances, which have been submitted to our inspection, we would say that whether the object is animate or inanimate, a local scene, or an article of vertu, the artist has the ability and the appliances to produce a most surprising copy. The portraits are admirable, and the villa residences of Mr Dutton, on East Terrace, and Mr Tinline, North Adelaide, present specimens of exactitude, which the unassisted effort of man could never accomplish.’

In January 1850 Norwood Potter announced that he had’obtained such command over the light of this country, as to warrant him in announcing that he will ... take the portraits of each person at their private residence, in any weather and at any hour of the day. Such improvement in the art of the daguerreotype, he ventures to suggest, will be found a great accommodation to ladies. A letter will receive prompt attention.’ He also stated that Mr Oglesby’s photographic business at the rear of the Clarendon Hotel had been merged into his own establishment in Rundle Street.

End.