b. 1810; d. 6 Mar 1901
Mayall was an American photographer. After a period as a photographer in Philadelphia he came to work in London for nearly twenty years, for some time managing the studio owned by Antoine Claudet, and then practised in Brighton. He brought from France the albumen process in 1851.
He then turned to the carte-de-visite, began mass production of these, from which he made a fortune, producing, it is said, some half a million of these a year.
His series of portraits of the Royal Family, taken in the 1860s, were enormously successful.
The Photographic News of 1861 relates an incident which took place in his studio: A lady who had been photographed by Mayall's assistant, and who had taken a dislike to the results, complained to Mayall who, having learned of the situation from the assistant immediately offered to photograph her again. Placing a seat with its back towards the camera, he solemnly asked her to be seated. He then placed the headrest towards her forehead, and asked her to keep very still. At this point the lady exclaimed that he was about to take a photograph of the back of her head, whereupon Mayall, with utmost politeness, said that having seen the Daguerreotype pictures, which he thought to be good likenesses of her, the only option left was to try a portrait in which the face would be entirely absent! Fortunately the client saw the funny side of this charade, looked again at the previous pictures, and bought a few.
Mayall was a strong supporter of Frederick Scott Archer, and upon his death he was instrumental in organising a Testimonial for his widow and three children.
© Robert Leggat, 1999.