I don't remember the date we went, but one Sunday I convinced my other half to come for a day out to Coventry, he doesn't like rooting around in junk shops nor does he like Coventry (a thoroughly Silhillian disposition I've come to learn) but by hook or by crook I got him to come with me. My guts are telling me it was autumn 2015 but never mind the date, I should have just written the post at the time.
Anyway, we went and had a look around Fargo Village, in one of the containers was a second-hand and antiques seller who had a lovely wooden case for holding plates and three boxes of exposed glass negatives. Of course, I bought them and brought them home and by fashioning a rude lightbox out of a sheet of paper over a lamp, had a better look at their content:
They were all jumbled up between the boxes and I was certain the locations shown above were shot in the Far East; one frame in particular confirmed my suspicions:
I did a google image search for "far east christian facade" and within the first row of image results, I got the Ruins of St Paul's in Macau. I find it absolutely fascinating that I have in my possession a piece of glass, that was exposed at a location the other side of the world, a lifetime ago.
In my opinion, the people's clothing looks like that of the very early 20th century and a bit of research into the plates themselves gave this notion some validation, They are Ilford Empress plates and according to photomemorabilia.co.uk were produced from 1895 up until as late as the 1930's so this ties in with my speculations.
I have three boxes of these plates, some of which are in better condition than others, and some better exposed than others. My feeling is that I have the discarded, poor quality plates, and I like to think that someone out there has an album of prints of the best ones. I have considered sending them to the local press, but have yet to carry out this plan, if I do - I will share the outcome!
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