Unidentified sitter

A carte-de-visite portrait of an unidentified sitter, possibly an actor.

Photographed by Mrs. E. Mayall of 14 Glenarm Road, Clapton Park [East London].

Born Annie Nainby in St Pancras, she was the daughter of William David Nainby, a modeller. On 8 July 1857 at St Pancras Church she married Edwin Mayall, son of the hugely successful photographer John Jabez Edwin Mayall, who, like his father, was a 'photographic artist.'

The couple appear on the 1871 census living at 174 High Street Kensington, though by this date Annie was calling herself Amelia.The following year she became a widow. According to the abstract of her husband's will, ‘Edwin Mayall, late of 34 Manor-street Clapham in the County of Surrey Photographer who died 26 February 1872 at 34 Manor-street' left effects valued at £200. He was buried in Norwood Cemetery on 2 March 1872.

On 2 March 1872 the Morning Post reprinted a short obituary from one of the photographic journals. ‘The Photographic News announces of the death of Mr E. Mayall, eldest son of Mr J. E. Mayall, the well-known photographer of London and Brighton, which event took place, after many months of suffering, on the evening of Monday last. The deceased was only 37 years of age, but had great experience in photography, having worked it from the earliest days of daguerreotype and calotype. He twice made the tour of the United States of America, and at other times he travelled through France, German, and Italy, always in pursuit of his art, and always bringing back hints and ideas suggested by the working of photography in those countries. His death will be greatly regretted by a large circle of friends.'

Amelia is possibly the 65-year-old widow Amelia Mayall who in 1901 was living with her widowed sister Elizabeth Macpharlane and nephew Alfred, a commercial clerk, at 47 Stanley Gardens, Hampstead.

She is possibly the Amelia Mayall who died aged 76 in the first ¼ of 1911 in Islington.