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John Moffat

and his

Studios

Moffat's Studio  -  126 Princes Street 

©  Reproduced by courtesy of Edinburgh City Libraries and Information Services.

Studio in the 1890s

John Moffat advertised: 

In 1894, Frank Pelham Moffat took over the Moffat business following his father’s death.  In 1895, he enlarged and improved the studio at 125 Princes Street.  Electric incandescent light was installed for portraiture, but later this was discarded in favour of the arc lamp.    [BJP11, p219]

In 1904, three floors of 126 Princes Street were bought and combined with 125 to make a single house comprising 3 reception rooms, glass studios, operating rooms, printing rooms and enlarging rooms.    [ST]. 

Marshall Wane's Studio and John Moffat's Studio  -  1892

A  correspondent in The Practical Photographer in 1892 referred to the studios of  Marshall Wane  and John Moffat.  He said:

"There will always be a hankering after photography in colours, and to further cultivate the demand, Mr Marshall Wane and Mr J Moffat have some very fine specimens of this art, quite different from what has "gone before"; you can not see the brush marks.

The colours and tints are naturally studied and near the idea as one could wish.  This description of work is only for the upper crush, the lower crush must be content to look on.

The Studio in 1904

John Moffat’s Studios remained at 126 Princes Street until 1962.  Here is a description from 1904:

“The well known electric and day-light studios for portraiture, including a special studio with toys for photographing children.  Moffats has a stock of 300,000 negatives including some old views of Edinburgh.  Specialists in group work, “at home”  and outdoor photography.  Also miniatures, water colour paintings and oil paintings, either from life or from a photograph, by AE Moffat”    [IA]

The 20th Century

©  Reproduced by courtesy of Evening News.   Click here for web site details.

126 Princes Street

Moffat 'Photographer of Children' remained at this address until from 1873 until 1962.

At one time, there were over 100,000 negatives (or 300,000 if the quote above is correct) in the Moffat Collection, but these had reduced to 10,000 by the time the firm was taken over by ER Yerbury.  John Moffat, great grandson of John Moffat the photographer, was unsuccessful in attempting to trace these in the 1990s.    [JM]