Redfern, H. J. | English Field Camera | English | Half Plate
HENRY JASPER REDFERN (1872-1928) 1898.
Obviously of great interest to a collector living in Sheffield, this camera carries the label of H. Jasper Redfern, a Sheffield-based optician, who, in the 1890s, was giving exhibitions of the Lumiere Cinematographe and retailing photographic materials and tuition, and Rontgen X-ray equipment. Redfern had two premises in Sheffield, his showrooms at 55-57 Surrey Street, and his 'Works and Studios' at 104-106 Norfolk Street. It is not known whether his 'Works' actually made this finely finished, ebony inlaid camera, or simply retailed it, but his 'Studios' certainly produced films of local interest, and he later moved into the business of exhibiting his 'World Renowned Animated Pictures and Refined Vaudeville Entertainments', owning and operating a seaside summer show in 'Jasper Redfern's Palace by the Sea', at Westcliffe, and adding to his interests the 'Grand Theatre of Varieties', on Peter Street, Manchester.
In Sheffield, Redfern, with Frank Mottershaw, the founder of the Sheffield Photo Co., first made outdoor films near the City centre, and later built a studio on Hanover Street, where in around 1905, for less than £100, they made a very successful film, entitled 'A Daylight Robbery', featuring the local fire brigade as a gang of mounted robbers.
Redfern made and exhibited films up to about 1915 before concentrating entirely on his research into X-rays and cancer treatment at the Christie Hospital, Manchester, and which eventually led to his own death from cancer in 1928, from the effects of radiation.
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