G.F. Jenkinson, Auckland, New Zealand
- G.F. JENKINSON, AUCKLAND
George Frederick Jenkinson, (died 17 May 1925 aged 75) photographer, Auckland.
Born in the City of London, Jenkinson was a descendant of the original Lord Liverpool. He emigrated to Australia when quite young. He spent many years in the back blocks of Australia (ie away from the city) and he underwent many hardships while carrying out laborious station (large ranch) work. He was also mining at Broken Hill in the far west region of outback of New South Wales.
He was of an artistic temperament, and was very fond of music and good literature and became a professional photographer, establishing the leading photographic business at Broken Hill.
By February 1903 he had the purchased the Sarony Studio in Karangahape Road, Auckland and settled down to business there. Large photographs (15 by 12 inches) of heads were his speciality: “… visitors to his studio will find many pictures of great beauty. His flashlight photographs are marvellously clear and well produced. (Observer, Volume XXIII, Issue 22, 14 February 1903, Page 8)
Sarony Studio seems to have been an international brand with at least three branches in New Zealand, each in different ownership; The studio in Ingestre Street, Wellington was owned by Arthur Waldemar Schaef. By October 1903 the studio in the Strand Arcade at 233 to 237 Queen Street and Elliot Street in Auckland was in the hands of photograher Walter S Best.
In 1909 Jenkinson moved to Hamilton, an inland city in the North Island of New Zealand, 155 km to the south and continued business as a photographer though presumably with a view to an easier life.
Jenkinson, who was a widower, made a will on 20 March 1924 witnessed by Evelyn E. M. Scherer, another photographer in Hamilton. In a codicil to the will he gave her “my diamond pin and the spode plate and dog “Chum”.”
- KARANGAHAPE RD G. P. O. Christmas Greeting
The entire length of Karangahape Road from Symonds Street to Ponsonby Road was lined with shops and other services including hotels, banks and picture theatres.
The old Newton Post Office and Bank of New Zealand existed there at the heart of the Newton area. Both were demolished in the 1970s to make way for a motorway overbridge, severely disrupting continuity of retail and building frontage.
In October 1883, just as New Zealanders began the annual ritual of buying seasonal tokens of esteem to post overseas, Dunedin’s Evening Star, quoting local photographers the Burton Brothers, posed a question that had exercised immigrants for some years. “Does it not seem folly,” the paper asked “to send back to the Old Country Christmas cards which were manufactured there and exported hither?” The Evening Star went on to answer its own question “… a few years since we should have replied ‘No’; but in view of the experiences of the last two years we say most decidedly, ‘Yes, it is folly.’” The newspaper, clearly, saw the period of 1881 and 1882 as pivotal in the establishment of a small but important industry, the New Zealand Christmas card business.
Sources: Back Story: Summer Scenes and Flowers: The Beginnings of the New Zealand Christmas Card, 1880-1882 Peter Gilderdale; Early New Zealand Photographers; Australian Slang
undivided-back postcards 