Merchant Benjamin Sparks and staff outside his business premises on Turbot Street, Brisbane, circa 1880.

Albumen print photograph, cabinet card format, 108 x 165 mm (mount); verso with the elaborate back mark of ‘Mathewson & Co., Artists and Photographers, Brisbane’; both the print and the mount are in superb condition.

Benjamin Sparks was a Brisbane general merchant and importer who established his business in 1877. His headquarters and warehouse occupied a large stone building near the wharves on the Brisbane River directly opposite where the State Library of Queensland stands today. The premises fronted onto Turbot Street and stretched back to Roma Street, where there was a rear entrance. The company prospered for a little over a decade: branches were opened in Ipswich and Toowoomba, and towards the end of 1888 limited liability shares were advertised. Sparks was, however, declared bankrupt in 1890 – an early casualty of the severe economic depression that gripped Australia in the 1890s.

We have not been able to trace another example of this Mathewson cabinet photo; the image is quite possibly a unique survivor.