Unidentified sitter

Photographed by Luigi Antonio Cella of Boston, Lincolnshire.

On 21 December 1860 'at the Roman Catholic Chapel. Boston, Mr Luigi Cella, artist [married] Catherine Glanville, youngest daughter of Mr James Cotton, brush manufacturer, of High-street, in this town' (Leicestershire Mercury, 29 December 1860).

The couple appear on the 1861 census, living at a boarding house in Boston run by a widow named Lucy Harriet Parker. He was 28 years old and she was 21. Luigi gave 'Italy' as his place of birth; Catherine was born in Leicester. For profession, he described himself as a 'Photographic Artist.'

An advertisement in the Boston Guardian (14 March 1863) reads: 'LUIGI CELLA begs to inform the Clergy, Gentry, and Inhabitants of Boston and the Neighbourhood, that he has had a new and commodious Studio erected in WIDE BARGATE, for the better convenience of his Patrons. With the increased facilities at his command, he will be enabled to execute those Life-like specimens which have already gained for him such a flattering measure of support.'

When the census was taken in 1871, Luigi was a 'Photographer' living at 5 Bargate in Boston with three sons and one daughter. His wife was elsewhere the night of the census. Since the last census, Luigi had become a Naturalised British Subject. According to the National Archives, which holds his naturalisation papers, this happened on 23 September 1867.

In 1891 Luigi was still a photographer. He and Catherine were now living at 9 Silver Street in Boston.

Luigi Cella died, aged 65, in Boston on 27 May 1897 (Sleaford Gazette, 5 June 1897).