Ambrotype
Maker & role
Unknown, Photographer
Production date
circa 1860
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Object detail
Title
Portrait of Robert Hunt
Production place
Collection
Measurements
Closed case, H: 8.3 x W: 8 x D: 1.7cm (H: 83 x W: 80 x D: 17mm); Sight / image measurement, H: 7.1 x W: 5.7cm (H: 71 x W: 57mm)
Subject person
Credit line
Gift, William Leigh Hunt, 2005
The Mint Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
The Mint Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Caption
Hand-coloured ambrotype portrait of Robert Hunt, Deputy Master, Royal Mint, Sydney, c1860
Description
Robert Hunt (1830-1892) came to New South Wales in October 1854, as one of the officers of the newly established Sydney Branch of the Royal Mint. He was one of the first graduates of London's Government School of Mines and Science Applied to the Arts (later called the Royal School of Mines) where he had studied chemistry, metallurgy and assaying. He was transferred to the newly established Melbourne Branch Mint in 1870 and held a senior position there until 1877 when he returned to Sydney to take up the position of Deputy Mint Master. He was appointed as a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George in 1888 and died in office in 1892. Hunt was also a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales, serving in several capacities on the committees of the Society. This ambrotype was possibly taken on the occasion of Robert Hunt's marriage in November 1860 to Mary Paul, the hand-colouring points up his physical resemblance to his famous great-uncle, English poet, critic and man of letters Leigh Hunt (1784-1859).
Hunt was a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales, serving in several capacities on the committees of the Society, but he is best known today to historians of Australian photography as a talented amateur photographer. On at least one occasion in 1859 several of his stereoscopic views of Sydney Harbour, the Botanic Gardens and Circular Quay, were on public exhibition at Flavelle Brothers’ jewellery store in George Street. Hunt also worked with Professor John Smith, foundation professor of chemistry at the University of Sydney, to pioneer the dry plate as the most suitable medium for scientific expedition photography.The Jevons archives in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester includes a number of photographs of Robert Hunt taken in 1857 and 1858 by his friend and colleague at the Sydney Mint, William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882). It is apparent even from Jevons’s monochrome photographs that Robert Hunt was a dark-haired man, with perhaps something of a sallow complexion.
Hunt was a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales, serving in several capacities on the committees of the Society, but he is best known today to historians of Australian photography as a talented amateur photographer. On at least one occasion in 1859 several of his stereoscopic views of Sydney Harbour, the Botanic Gardens and Circular Quay, were on public exhibition at Flavelle Brothers’ jewellery store in George Street. Hunt also worked with Professor John Smith, foundation professor of chemistry at the University of Sydney, to pioneer the dry plate as the most suitable medium for scientific expedition photography.The Jevons archives in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester includes a number of photographs of Robert Hunt taken in 1857 and 1858 by his friend and colleague at the Sydney Mint, William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882). It is apparent even from Jevons’s monochrome photographs that Robert Hunt was a dark-haired man, with perhaps something of a sallow complexion.
Accession number
MIN2005/18
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