Studio portrait of a gentleman standing in front of a trompe l’œil backdrop. Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, circa 1866.

Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 101 x 65 mm (mount); verso with the back mark of ‘H. W. Fox, Photographic Artist, Ann Street, Fortitude Valley’; print and mount are in excellent condition.

An extremely rare carte de visite by H. W. Fox. Remarkably, Trove locates no examples of Fox’s photographs in Australian collections.

Little is known about Fox, but the DAAO entry certainly has it all wrong:

‘A professional photographer listed at Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, in 1866-67. This may be a misprint for Alexander Fox, who could have visited Queensland then.’

However, there is no mistaking the initials ‘H. W.’ on this beautifully designed back mark, which is also interesting in that it makes no mention of either Brisbane or Queensland – just The Valley.