[CORNISH MINING:

Original Photographs].

[N.p., c.1880]. Ten original photographs mounted on card with printed maroon ruled borders, uncaptioned but for three photos having "Levant" or "Levant School Mine" written into the negative, one of the photos with the old handwritten name of "Mr J.B. Matthews" on the verso of the board. Significant fading and yellowing to the prints, spotting, marking and darkening to the boards, slight lifting to the paper covering of a few of the boards, though the photographs remain fixed. The Levant Mining Company was founded in 1820, although copper mining had occurred on the site from at least the mid-18th century. In its early decades the mine was very profitable and a beam engine had been installed in 1840 to extract water from the mines. A man engine was installed in 1857 in order to get miners to and from the deepest mines. This failed in 1919 and 31 miners were killed with many more injured; within 11 years the mine had closed, partly due to the falling prices of copper, tin and arsenic but it could be argued that the mine never really recovered from the disaster. The images all feature group portraits of miners, sometimes in work clothes and hats or helmets, including one showing a row of topless and barefoot men wearing long shorts in the foreground. Seven of the photographs are posed in front of stone buildings at the Levant mine, the other three are set amidst some machinery on the site. A wonderful record of the ordinary working men of the day. Item #33596

Price: £450.00