The Photographic Studio
of Emilian Fehrenbach

Roger Vaughan's Visitor's Photographs


The studio of Emelian Fehrenbach of 111 Strand, London W.C. was started in 1854 and the Fehrenbach name was still in use up to 1888.
Some useful dates: Emilian Fehernbach 1854-1873; Madame Isobel Fehrenbach 1874-1882; Edwin Fehrenbach 1883-1888.
The following information has been provided by visitors who have added considerably to our knowledge - many thanks - Roger Vaughan 2004,
last updated - December 2011

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Steven Evans wrote:
The image I have is a daguerreotype (actually a 1/4 plate)
which resides in its original case embossed with E.Fehrenbach on the front.





Photograph of Unknown Gent

Steven's internet research (with assistance from Roger Vaughan) took him to Rosemary & Stan Rodliffe who provided the following information about the Fehrenbachs' early career.....

'Michael Pritchard mentions these folk in his Directory of London Photographers. According to him, Emilian traded at 111 Strand from 1854 and died on 17 August 1867 after which his wife Isabel carried on the business before it was taken over by Edwin Squire who continued to trade under the Fehrenbach name.'

I think this can help me assert that the image I possess is made by Mr. F. and not Mrs. F.
Somehow I will have to find out exactly when Mr.F. died. I estimate this photo was taken around 1850-5. It is quite beautifully tinted. - Steven Evans, Toronto

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Added January 2003, sent by Neil Anderson
Photographs Possibly relating to the Family of the Photographer Emilian Fehrenbach
My name is Neil Anderson, my fathers family name was Fehrenbach but was changed during the war.
Unfortunately the last of by fathers family died some years ago and when I was clearing the house, I found the attached photo in their collection with the Fehrenbach studio mark on the back. I do not know the subject but assumed it could have been a distant relative.


PHOTOGRAPHER & NOTES.

E. Fehrenbach, German School of Photography, 111 Strand, London Established 1842. [Older gent c.1869]
photo
H.Turner, Bedford House, 245 Commercial Road. [London] [lady and child c.1876]
photo
J.Kettarer. [Nomstaad? Germany?] [Lady 1870s]
photo
Ruf & Dilger, Freiburg 1/B. [Two children 1878]
photo
Hrh. Bussrensrhutt, Bremen. [Two young men c.1880]
photo
V.Koch, Freiburg, 1/B. [Four ladies 1880s]
photo
London Stereoscopic Company Ltd, 54 Cheapside. [London] [Three gents in clerical clothes, c.1900 (not related to Fehrenbach) ]
front ------- back
W.A.Brown & Son, 148 Camberwell Road, London. SE. [Lady c.1900]
photo
I. Perkoff (Issac), St Petersburg Studio, London. [Young couple, c.1902]
photo
Whiffin's Studio, 237 East India Road, Poplar. (My aunts and uncle. From left to right, Louise Fehrenbach, Veronica Fehrenback, Edward Fehrenbach and Marie Fehrenbach) [Four Children and a Steiff? teddy bear c.1911]
photo


Thanks Neil for your interesting contribution - Roger Vaughan

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More information on the Family of the Photographer Emilian Fehrenbach Sent by - David Todd - February 2004.

I have been researching the SQUIRE family Tree for some years, in an amateur capacity, starting with a David Squire in Barnstaple, North Devon. I am in touch with a number of his descendents today.

One of his children was EDWIN SQUIRE who is mentioned on your web site and I have known for some years he lived at 111, The Strand, London as a Widower (by virtue of the 1881 Census). It is only within the last 2/3 months I discovered who he had married. (Emilian's daughter Domonicka)
Emilian Fehrenbach died on 17th August 1867 at the above address aged 49 years. He was brought to Kensal Green Cemetery and interred in a public grave in the Catholic section. His wife was Isabel Fehrenbach and she died on 10th September 1877 aged 46 years having been ill for 2 years.

According to the 1871 Census there were two children - a son and a daughter. It appears that the daughter purchased a plot of land in what is now known as Camberwell Old Cemetery and erected an inscribed Headstone with iron railings. This mentions the last resting place of Emilian Fehrenbach in addition to the details of his wife Isabel Fehrenbach. (Note: I gather there is a photograph of this 1877 - by the Fehrenbach studio - mentioned below - R.F.V.)

Edwin Squire married the daughter, Domonicka Isabel Josepha Fehrenbach, on 7th July 1878 in the Chapel Royal in the Precinct of the Savoy. She conceived a child but died in childbirth on Christmas Eve, 24th December 1879 at 111, The Strand. The child was a girl, Josephine Louise Squire, but sadly she died when only 6 days old on 27th December 1879. I visited the Cemetery during January 2004 and have seen the original Burial entries and can confirm since the original picture was taken (1877) that Domonicka Squire and her baby daughter are also interred in the same grave (1879).

I would be most interested to learn who the FEHRENBACH descendents are and how you or they learned about Edwin Squire. I am aware of the SQUIRE descendents who also have some possibly mouth-watering Fehrenbach pictures in addition to the ones I have.

Thanks David that sorts things out well and explains the link between the two families and why Squire continued to use the Fehrenbach name - that of his wife - Roger Vaughan The inscription on the Fehrenback grave at Camberwell Old Cemetery (Cemetery Map Reference 5552/56)

Thy will be done, in Loving Rememberance of Isobel Fehrenbach who departed this life 10th September 1877 Aged 46 Years
also Emilian Fehrenbach Husband of the above who died 19 August 1867, Aged 49 years, and is intered at Kensal Green.

Thanks David for also sending these interesting photographs - Roger

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Photographs in Roger Vaughan Collection

Unknown gent photographed by Edwin Squire 1888

Unknown gent photographed by Madame Fehrenbach 1870s

and the backs

     

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A contribution by J�r�me Fehrenbach - a visitor to this site, with thanks - Roger




Photograph of Emillian Fehrenbach

Emilian (in fact Aemilian) Fehrenbach was born in the second half of 1817 in Furtwangen, Germany, the eldest son of the innkeeper Johann Fehrenbach (1788-1853) and Josepha Fehrenbach (she had the same maiden surname but was from a different family). He originated from a long lineage of peasants traceable back into the 15th century, which turned to clockmaking in the middle of the 18th century. His grandfather Peter Fehrenbach (1748-1834) was an innovative and dynamic clockmaker, who introduced around 1775 in the Black Forest industry so-called 8-days movement clocks, and who exported large quantities of clocks, primarily to France. Aemilian�s father was, together with an innkeeper, a clock-shipper, his cousins were all clock-makers. In the 1820s, the interest of the family, once exclusively focussed on France, moved to Great Britain, then a booming country and probably a less saturated market. Several first grade cousins of Aemilian, the Kaltenbach brothers (in South Wales) and the Fehrenbach (in the north of London).

As early as 1834, barely 17, Aemilian was launched by his father on the roads of Europe as clock-seller, soon rallied by his younger brother Benjamin, born in 1821. In 1841, Aemilian is cited by a document of Furtwangen�s archives as being a merchant in Eastern India, whilst Benjamin was still in London.

In the beginning of the 1840s, Aemilian apparently got tired with clock-selling and trotting around the globe. He probably also observed first weaknesses in his original business. It did not escape his attention that his fellow countrymen from the Black Forest overly covered the British market, and that the latter�s absorption capabilities depleted, and that, with increasing numbers of wealthy peasants now equipped with German long�life products, the outlet was doomed to reduce dramatically if nothing was done to renew product lines. Indeed, around 1845, the Black Forest clock industry experienced a severe crisis, due to overproduction, which made producers turn to other products, in particular the famous cuckoo-clocks. Aemilian did not make this move, and, most presumably out of personal interest, decided to turn to photography.

One of his oldest productions is probably to be found in a series of daguerreotypes of his numerous family (2 parents, four sisters, three brothers), made in the parental house of Furtwangen, certainly in 1848 on the occasion of Emilian�s father�s 60th birthday.

Emilian�s company is said to have been set up as early as 1842. This seems extremely early for a photograph studio, and we assume that this company originally dealt with clock-selling, and only at a later stage, around 1850, turned to photography.

In August 1852 he married a certain Isabel, in St Martin in the Fields. She gave him two children. He died in 1867, aged 49. His son Albert, born in 1855, seems to have emigrated to the United States, while the daughter remained in England.

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