A. H. Hawke Helston |
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Alfred Herbert Hawke was a photographer and postcard publisher based in Helston in Cornwall, whose work was produced during the first half of the 20th century. He worked from a shop and studio in Meneage Street, Helston travelling around the Cornish coastline and villages. No views of inland locations such as Truro & Bodmin are known to exist. Hawke also visited the north coast of Devon and published views of Clovelly, Coombe Martin and Bucks Mill amongst others. Regular events such as the Helston Flora (Furry) Dance and Padstow Hobby Hoss Day were photographed as were single ones such as shipwrecks, fires and elections. Particular events such as the visit of the Lord Mayor Treloar of London to the Flora Day and St.Keverne in 1907 or the demonstration of the new Helston fire engine in 1910.
Some formally posed studio portraits exist but these are unfortunately mainly unidentified. Sets of cards were produced for hotels and country houses, amongst these were the Bay Hotel, Newquay and Godolphin House. He produced also calendars and bookmarks depicting his photgraphs. The quality of his work is variable both in composition and printing and similar to the quality of the work of his comtemporaries such as Bragg, Opie and Govier. An interesting article on Hawke was written by Roger Lacy in the April 1991 issue of Picture Postcard Monthly (PPM). A more recent article written by Mary Mitchley appeared in the May 2023 issue of PPM. Currently as of 15 October 2024, my Hawke collection stands at around 8028 cards, while the total list of known cards numbers some 9419 cards.
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© Brian Olivey 2024 |