Daguerre's Ruins of Holyrood Chapel

Anyone anyone who visited the Victorian Treasures exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery would have passed Daguerre's 1824 painting Ruins of Holyrood Chapel. There's a fascination beyond the masterful rendering of moonlight when you know that the same subject was used on a much larger scale (80 x 50 feet) in the Georgian version of virtual reality, the Diorama. Please note that this blog draws heavily but not exclusively on R Derek Wood's excellent diorama website

Daguerre's diorama technique created an immersive visual field by means of scenes painted on translucent gauze. Features could be revealed, shaded and hidden by selective lighting controlled by mechanical blinds. The dynamic nature of the performance often simulated not just three dimensions but also the passing of time and must have been a step beyond the norm in contemporary theatres (Daguerre was a theatre scene painter as well as an accomplished artist).

The Daguerre Diorama

Liverpool was one of six cities with a Daguerre Diorama, the others being Paris, London, Dublin, Edinburgh and Manchester. The building was a purpose-built environment for displaying a show to a seated audience. In Paris and London the audience was located on a moving platform and a 30 minute performance comprised two separate dioramas with the audience platform rotating between them. Of course, it was not full 360 degree immersion but the skillfully illuminated diorama would likely have dominated the field of view in an otherwise darkened auditorium.

Other cities, including Liverpool and Manchester, only had a single diorama painting displayed per performance. The display changed only every 10-12 months. A season ticket could be bought that gave unlimited entry for 7s 6d, the normal entry costing 2s for the best seats, 1s for the gallery.

Coppinger, the Keeper of the Liverpool Diorama (and friends)

According to Gore's 1827 Directory, the Diorama was located at 31 Bold Street. Maps show it as approximately 5-6 buildings down from what is now Roscoe Place on the east side of Bold Street, not far from St Luke's (the "bombed-out church"). The image below is an OpenSimulator build based on a woodcut of the Edinburgh Diorama from Derek Wood's site. The panels on the roof are for illumination of the immense canvas located towards the rear. The far side probably had large windows in the wall as per the Paris Diorama.Two adjacent and possibly contemporary buildings have been added as a texture and modified somewhat to remove the current shop fronts.

The Bold Street Diorama opened in 1823 and operated as a true Daguerre Diorama according to the English patent assigned to John Arrowsmith, a relative to Daguerre by marriage who managed the early operations of the Regent's Park Diorama in London.

The Bold Street Diorama as portrayed in the 1833 edition of The Stranger's Guide to Liverpool differs somewhat from the one in Edinburgh.

It seems likely that William Henry Coppinger was the manager (keeper) of the Liverpool Diorama from at least 1825-1827 (according to Gore's Directory). In 1828, however, The Gazette lists him as an insolvent debtor being in business with Thomas Colley Grattan and George Dance as proprietors of a different company, the Provincial Diorama, supposedly operating in Liverpool, Manchester, Dublin and Cork.

Colley Grattan was an Irish author and playwright who seems to have fled to France in 1828 due to financial difficulties (there was a failed play in London in addition to the collapse of the Provincial Diorama company). In happier times, 1824 to be precise, he had dedicated a book to Coppinger who was described as being of the Inner Temple. If he was a law student or barrister, it might explain the Cork connection as Coppingers studying law (among others from that city) often travelled to London as part of their legal training. Grattan himself was originally intended to study law.

Less is known of George Dance other than that he was introduced to Grattan by Benson Earle Hill as described in the latter's book Playing About. In fact, it was the Misses Dance whom Hill encountered as part of theatrical entertainments in which he participated. One Miss Dance in particular appears to have missed out on a promising theatrical career in Bath, unfortunately taking more pains over her social life than her lines. Grattan also had some experience acting and became a friend of Edmund Kean while in the militia at Wexford where he acted in amateur theatricals.

The events of 1827-28

Several things happen very quickly in 1827-8. Perhaps the popularity of the Daguerre-style Diorama is on the wane and more exciting alternatives, e.g. the competing British Diorama, will start to lure customers away. In London bills and interest need to be paid by the proprietor Jacob Smith so the Manchester Diorama is wound up and the Holyrood Chapel diorama painting auctioned in December 1827. Perhaps the proximity to Liverpool made the location vulnerable. What happens next is unclear.

As mentioned above, in January 1828 Coppinger, Grattan and Dance are declared insolvent. One possibility is that their company, Provincial Diorama, has been Arrowsmith's English licensee all along but that they rent the paintings from Jacob Smith. Without a painting, Manchester has to close with the trio incurring significant losses.

Alternatively, Provincial Diorama is formed to acquire Hollyrood Chapel but finds itself over-committed financially to the severe embarrassment of its owners.However, the very short interval between the auction and bankruptcy suggests mis-management of an improbably high order. The distinctive ambition, however, is to site dioramas in cities including Cork (Coppinger's home town?) along with Manchester, Liverpool and Dublin but not Edinburgh.

A final and more credible option sees Provincial Diorama being formed in stealth mode somewhat earlier and failing due to a downturn in the market allied to increased competition.

Whether by default (nobody bids) or by re-purchase at a knock-down price, the diorama painting returns to its normal circulation, presumably still under the control of Jacob Smith. Grattan departs to France but the next steps of Coppinger and Dance are unknown.

The drama is not yet over, however, because in August 1828 The Gazette serves notice on the bankrupt Jacob Smith (occupations listed as printer, dealer and chapman) "now or late of the Diorama, Regent's Park" that he needs to make an account of his business and meet his creditors.

How these accounts are resolved is unclear but the Holyrood Chapel painting is displayed in Dublin which closes at the end of 1828 when the painting finally (and fittingly) transfers to Edinburgh.

It is perhaps worth mentioning, however, that there is no evidence that Daguerre ever travelled to Scotland and his diorama of Roslin/Roslyn Chapel is very similar to a work by William Delacour.

The last days of the Bold Street Diorama

Business also continues in Liverpool although there is no mention of the Diorama in the 1829 Gore's Directory which may reflect some disruption to normal affairs with the (presumed) departure of Coppinger. In mid-July 1828 the Liverpool Mercury newspaper is carrying adverts for the Roslin Chapel diorama. This continuity is important as it suggests that the (now dispersed and defunct) Provincial Diorama company was unlikely to have been the original licensee and was indeed a competitor. If Jacob Smith has left the scene in Regent's Park, it also suggests that there was (as Wood suggests) a more significant presence that maintains activity in Liverpool and possibly in London as well. Basically, however, there are a lot of unknowns.

In 1830 Daguerre's collaborator Bouton breaks with his colleague and moves to London where he manages and paints exclusively for the Regent's Park Diorama. There are no further Daguerre paintings forthcoming from Paris where Daguerre continues to paint despite his own bankruptcy in 1832, developing a new double-effect technique in 1833 in which paint is applied to both front and back surfaces. Wood suggests that the Arrowsmith family may, indeed, have supported the rival British Diorama company around this time.

In Liverpool there are intimations that the building may be given over to other uses by the end of 1830 but it continues as a Diorama until it finally closes in 1832. According to Wood, this coincides with two events. Firstly, a branch of the British Diorama opens in Dale Street. Secondly, and more significantly for Wood, the partnership between Egerton Smith (owner) and John Smith (unrelated, editor) at the Liverpool Mercury newspaper is dissolved with the latter departing to pursue interests in education. Wood believes that this partnership may have underwritten the Bold Street Diorama and possibly more, the (rather common) surname possibly implying kinship with the London proprietors. The evidence, however, is circumstantial and does not explain the departure of the Arrowsmith/Smith influence from Regent's Park.

It is worth mentioning that 1832 also saw the arrival of cholera in Liverpool and this may also have had significant consequences for the Diorama audience.

A little is known of the fate of the directors of the ill-starred Provincial Diorama company, notably Colley Grattan. He would have been 35-36 years old at the time of the diorama episode. After taking his leave of Ireland he travels to Bordeaux via London and later to the United States where he serves as British Consul in Boston with some success. His two-volume autobiography explicitly draws a veil across the pertinent 10 months when much seems to have gone awry. There is no detail apart from a mention of a chancery suit that was ultimately to take up some 35 years. This may have caused him anguish but it patently did not impede his career. However, he conspicuously fails to mention Coppinger, Dance or Kean (who was to have appeared in the failed play) in the book. The National Portrait Gallery has a portrait sketch dating to 1853.

Next to nothing is known of the other two. A William Henry Coppinger appears as manager of the Wexford branch of the National Bank of Ireland in 1850. It is, however, not an uncommon name.

The building

The twin-diorama buildings had a V-shape with a circular audience area and an entrance vestibule at the base of the V. The Regent's Park Diorama had a high status terrace entrance by Pugin that can be seen to the present day (image below courtesy of Google Maps as viewed inworld with RezMela SurroundView Lite). The single-diorama Manchester building, however, was more bell-shaped and presumably ressembled the Edinburgh building shown on Wood's website.

The inworld build of the Liverpool Diorama is a work-in-progress. It is hoped eventually to create a simple model of the diorama user experience.

Please note that this blog is a work-in-progress. Please check back for updates