Standish & Preece

This partnership was formed about 1885. The studio at 218 High Street was previously occupied by Gamble & Co. who last advertised in The Star from this address about September 1886. Standish & Preece were advertising from this studio on 18 January 1887 so they may have been at another location before 1887 or working for Gamble & Co. The partnership between Standish and Preece was dissolved in March 1890, however the studio continued operate under this name.

Frank Berry Standish (10 March 1860 - 30 August 1944) was born in Chelsea, London the son of Mary and William Standish a Yorkshire born artist who specialised in animal painting. In 1861 he was living at 46 Stanley Street, Chelsea and in 1871 at 10 Downs Park Road, London.

MARRIAGE.
Standish— Cross.— On Sept. 11, at Holy Trinity Church, by the Rev. John Hoatson, Frank Berry Standish, of Christchurch, to Eleanor Gordon, eldest daughter of Fred. Cross, Esq., Christchurch. The Star, Issue 6343, 14 September 1888, Page 2

He was then aged 28 and gave his occupation as an artist. In 1890 he was a photographer living at 233 North Belt, Christchurch. That year he left Christchurch to live in California, his household effects were sold at auction in April:

180, SALISBURY STREET, WEST,
Near Park Terrace.

Tuesday, 8th April 1890, at twelve noon. Under the esteemed favour of the positive orders of F. B. Standish, Esq., who is leaving the Colony, MESSES A. BEAUCHAMP & CO. will hold a perfectly unreserved SALE BY PUBLIC AUCTION, On the Premises, as above, of beautiful furniture and household effects. Valuable painting, choice gems of Works of art, curios, bric-a-brac, contained in a refined and well-appointed home, comprising -
HALL - Linoleum, door mat, sheepskin and other mats, hallstand, hall lamp (duplex burner).
DINING-ROOM - Brussels carpet and rug, brass-top fender, steel irons, extension table (8 x 4), Austrian and other chairs, book- case. Singer's sewing machine. Lamp (circular wick), ornaments, oil paintings by well-known masters.
DRAWING-ROOM - Brussels carpet, Maori mat, fender, fire-irons, ash-pan, pier glass in walnut, Fish-stand, tray and flowers, curtains, mantel-drape, ornaments, pictures (after Landseer, Turner and others), water colours and drawings.
BEDROOMS - Half-tester bedstead in black and gold, Spring mattress, leather mattress and Bolster, elegant wash-stand and dressing table, double set ware, chest drawers, lace curtains, tapestry carpet (27 3/4), afghan dressing table, ornaments and recherché surroundings.
SERVANTS' ROOM - Bed, mattress, pillows, carpet washstand, dressing table, looking-glass, ware.
KITCHEN - Customary culinary utensils of all kinds, linoleum, meat safe, scales and weights, dinner, breakfast, tea and dessert service, portable boiler, garden tools, one man saw.

Terms Cash. No Reserve.
Every (missing word) must be sold.
A. Ayers. Auctioneer.
Star , Issue 6820, 7 April 1890, Page 2

His wife and daughter followed in 1891.

Improved Photography. — Messrs Standish and Preece have been experimenting with the recently invented "colour sensitive" photographic dry plates, otherwise known as the isochromatic or orthochromatic plates. The purpose of these is not to obtain a picture in natural colours — an achievement as yet beyond the power of photography — but to render colours in the same order of intensity in which they are presented to the eye, so that the various shades shall appear in the photograph in the same order of relative lightness or darkness in which they appear in the natural object. The experiments made by Messrs Standish and Preece show that this is, to a great extent, secured by these plates. The object photographed was the cover of a child's picture-book, adorned with a rainbow-like figure, having bands, of scarlet, orange, yellow, light green, light blue, dark blue, purple and white, on a black ground. The picture taken by the colour sensitive plate rendered the intensity of the various colours with a considerable degree of faithfulness, the eight tints of the rainbow being represented by plainly distinct six shades in the photograph. A picture taken with an ordinary plate showed but three shades, the red, yellow, green and orange being blended in what was practically one dark mass. Messrs Standish and Preece have found that the amount of exposure necessary to obtain a photograph with the new plates is less than what is required when the old ones are used.

The Star, Issue 6936, 20 August 1890, Page 3

Photographic. - Messrs Standish and Preece, finding their present accommodation inadequate, are calling tenders for extensive additions and alterations to their photographic studio in High street.
The Star, Issue 7326, 5 July 1892, Page 3

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume XLIV, Issue 2271, 31 May 1898, Page 3
In 1898 Standish and Preece purchased the negatives of Charles Henry Manning.

In 1900 they are living in San Francisco with their daughter Elaine Massie Standish, Frank Standish is employed as a newspaper artist. Ten years later the family is living in Berkeley, Alameda, California and he is employed as a advertising artist.
He died on 30 August 1944 aged 84 years at Alameda, California, his wife Eleanor died there on 18 April 1946.


Alfred Ernest Lyttelton Preece (1863-1946) was born on 23 September 1863 the son of Hannah and William Preece a draper of Lyttelton. He was educated at Christ's College 1877-1879. His wife's name was Elizabeth Lindsay Allan whom he married about 1889. Their four known children were Dorothy Lindsay Preece born circa 1890, Ernest Eric Preece born circa 1891, Charles Alex Preece born circa 1893 and Marjorie Allan Preece born circa 1896.(BDM) He later became a fruit grower at the Avalon Orchards, Healthcote.
At the time of his death on 5 September 1946 he was an orchardist, living at Heathcote. His will was witnessed by Allan Bowles Cambridge, an artist and John Henry Fisher, a picture dealer.
(A. B. Cambridge 1847-1911 was a Christchurch artist, portrait painter and colourer of photographs).

STANDISH AND PREECE (Alfred Ernest Preece). Photographers, 218 High Street, Christchurch.

This extensive business was established by the present proprietor in conjunction with his late partner, Mr. Standish, in 1885. The latter retired from the firm in 1901. Mr Preece, who was born in the Colony, was educated at Christ's College, and learned the rudiments of his profession in Birmingham, England. Subsequently, although trained for a clerk, he adopted photography from his love of the art. The work undertaken by the firm consists chiefly of portraits and groups, although all classes of pictures are executed to order. The premises are very centrally situated; entering from the busy thoroughfare, the visitor is attracted towards splendid specimens of the firm's handiwork on show in the vestibule. There are many striking portraits of well-known faces and several very excellently finished family groups tastefully arranged in the various cases. An ascent to the first floor by a handsome staircase leads to elegantly furnished waiting-rooms and to the studio on the second floor. The latter is large and thoroughly well appointed. The firm were photographers by special appointment to the Earl of Glasgow, and have been honoured with a similar appointment from the Earl of Ranfurly, the present Governor.
Messrs Standish and Preece have also had the patronage of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Canterbury edition. Vol. 3, pages 287 and 288.
Published by the Cyclopedia Company at 153 Manchester Street, Christchurch in 1903.

1861 and 1871 census - England
Christcurch Library - transcript of church records
1900 United States Federal Census
1890 Christchurch Electoral Roll no 5436
California Death Index, 1940-1997 Ancestry.com
G. R MacDonald Dictionary of Canterbury Biographies, Canterbury Museum, N.Z.

Standish & Preece Photo of Richard John Seddon.

The Press - 3 January 1895

A. E. Preece, photographer and cycle dealer
(By W. J. A. BRITTENDEN)

Ernest Preece, as he was known, attended Christ’s College from 1874 to 1877. Sometime in the seven years after leaving school he set up the Christchurch Cyclists’ Exchange in the A1 Hotel building on the south-east corner of Cashel and Colombo Streets. He occupied what appear to have been two small shops in the latter street. As he was no more than 21 when he went overseas and as he stated he had been trained as a clerk, it is likely that his shop was opened about 1882 or 1883.

At all events in 1884 he sailed in the large steamer Doric (4744 tons) for England where he ordered stock from Hickling and Son, cycle manufacturers, Maidenhead. He also bought a 52- inch “Pilot” ordinary (“penny-farthing”) for himself together with a “King of the Road” cycle lamp from Messrs Lucas and Sons. He joined the Cyclists’ Touring Club and cycled from Birmingham, where he had spent some time visiting factories, down through Coventry to Worcester and on to the Severn River. After staying with various relatives in the area (many of them with pedagogic or clerical interests) he cycled through Oxford to London to catch the Aorangi (4163 tons, Captain Turpin) to return to New Zealand.

Camera bought

While he was in Birmingham, Ernest Preece purchased an “Instantograph” half- plate camera from Lancaster and Son, complete with tripod, plates and chemicals, for four guineas, if he paid the current price. Mr Frank Pearce, who eventually became “Standish and Preece”, acquired this camera from his former employer. He tells me its chief feature was a large aperture with a cover fitted with four knobs. A rubber band was attached to one of these knobs according to the exposure-time required the shutter was the shutter was released and the rubber band did the rest! And they still took good pictures with it.

After a little less than four months in England, Preece returned to Christchurch with new ideas for the following year (1885) he entered partnership with Standish as a photographer. For the first year or two their premises were in Montreal Street just south of the North Belt. Later, Preece was to refer to his “learning the rudiments of his profession in Birmingham.” He spent eight whole days in Birmingham with a camera.

When he sold out his cycle exchange is not clear but his shop is not listed in the directory for 1878 nor yet again in the 1885-86 edition.

This inquiry began with the publishing of .a photograph of “Prima Domus,” the first bach, or shack, on the New Brighton beach. Mr Pearce remembers Mr Preece referring to it as “the boatshed” as it may well have been after it was replaced by a substantially built holiday home which still stands today, scarcely recognisable. The veranda has been removed and the house no longer stands on piles high above ground level but it is in remarkably good condition. It is not impossible for the original bach to have been, in fact, a boathouse (Preece was interested in the river and, later, had quite an elaborate boatshed on his … missing text … summer of 1884-85, he was able to indulge his interest in his two hobbies, photography and cycling. The four photographs I have of this period strongly suggest that he rode a tricycle to New Brighton to avoid damage to his camera and plates from the tumbles almost inevitable when riding an ordinary cycle — and especially when on a rough road.

There is strong evidence to suggest that the figures in the original photograph were those of Messrs Myhre (sitting) and Parker (standing).

Ernest Preece — there was only one — owned the well- known High Street business for many years, his partner, having withdrawn in 1891.

Mr Preece sold out to Mr Pearce after World War II to take up the “Avalon” orchard in Port Hills Road where he died on September 5; 1946, aged 83 years.

The last word must be one of regret that “Prima Domus” is no more. Built on Marine Parade between Beresford and Hood streets it appears to have been demolished just a few years ago when a car park was made on the south of the Esplanade Hotel.

Holiday house

The Preece holiday house (the subject of an article on February 12) seems to have been located at 258 Marine Parade (originally Beach Road).

Part of the original 150 acres granted to Joseph Harrop Hopkins (a well-known Woolston identity) for £300 on November 7, 1872, it was bounded by high water on the east, what was to become Seaview Road on the north and Elizabeth (Rodney Street) in the south. On the west the boundary was apparently what is now Union Street and the original course of the Avon before the cut was made. With Hopkins in financial difficulties, this 65-acre block came into the hands of George Oram of Governor’s Bay, a member of the well-known hotel owning family, in 1875. On his death on April 13, 1876, the land was transferred to his widow, Louise Sophia who, the following year began to sell off half-acre sections.

On July 21, 1877, Alfred Ernest Lyttelton Preece, a minor (he was still at Christ’s College that year) purchased Lot 20 of Rural Section 15836, an area of two roods 12 perches, for £2 l0s. On January 6, 1889, Preece married Lizzie Lindsay Allan whom he had met on shipboard while returning to New Zealand in 1884 and on March 8, he transferred the New Brighton section with the pleasant holiday house (where they had spent their honeymoon), to his bride. She sold the property in 1911 to George Stockdill, retired farmer. A later owner was Mr John Noble, headmaster and well-known brass band conductor.

Between 1877 and 1884 - but nearer the earlier date - Ernest Preece had put up, or transported to New Brighton (it may well have been a former boathouse) the “shack” or bach shown in “The Press” on February 12. This he called Prima Domus, the “first house” in the foreshore but not, clearly, the first habitation in New Brighton, since Hopkins had built an 11-room boarding house (“The Villa”), near the river, on the north side of Seaview Road, in 1873 and his 14-roomed New Brighton Hotel was licensed in April, 1874. By 1884 there were, in fact, 16 holiday or permanent homes (of which Preece’s was one) and two stores in New Brighton.

The second bach, which the Preeces let through the agency of Wyatt the storekeeper, has lost its veranda and no longer stands so high above the surrounding land. The low-lying land round about has been filled in to a depth of four feet according to the present owners, Mr and Mrs D. R. Cavangh, who have found a layer of surface rubbish at … missing text … are within the wall of the sunporch which has been added. The door at the northern end has been made into a window and the chimney, not now visible from the road, is in the same position as shown in the 1896 photograph. The gables are of similar angle and the houses of comparable size.

The only puzzle is the absence of any signs of the former finials. But there is no doubt that 258 Marine Parade is Prima Domus, Mark II. ‘From information received,” as the police say, I had expected to find it much nearer the Esplanade Hotel. It was Mr P. D. Dunbar who suggested 258 as a distinct possibility and Mr Cavanagh who linked A. E. Preece with earlier ownership of the property. I am grateful to these two men for helping to solve a problem which has puzzled me for three months. I should also like to thank Mrs and Miss Skey, daughter and granddaughter, respectively, of A. E. Preece and Mr Albert Hedger for their kind assistance.