William Savage Cottage, Robe, southeast South Australia, late 1860s.

Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 62 x 102 mm; verso with wet stamp of ‘J. T. Ginnings, Photographer’; the print has lost a fair amount of contrast; the mount is clean and stable.

From a carte de visite album belonging to William Savage (1817-1890) and later his son Henry Savage (1857, Robe, S.A. – 1931, Robe, S.A.).

William Savage and Caroline (Bolton) Savage (1820-1873) were married in London in 1839 and emigrated to South Australia from England in the mid 1850s with their two eldest sons, soon after the death of their infant daughter Ellen (1848-1854). Their third son Henry was born in Robe and appears to have lived there his entire life; he, along with both his parents, as well as his older brothers William junior (1842-1883) and Charles (1845-1928), is buried in the Robe Cemetery.

William Savage senior, a stonemason, was a pioneer settler in Robe and the township’s principal builder in the 1850s. “William Savage Cottage”, in Victoria Street, was built by him soon after his arrival, and still stands today, a heritage-listed building. In this carte de visite by travelling photographer J. T. Ginnings, Savage is posed at the front entrance of his residence.