Lot 32: David Archer, Bookseller, 1952

JOHN DEAKIN David Archer, Bookseller, 1952 gelatin silver print credited 'Photograph by John Deakin', captioned and annotated 'Property of Mrs Barker/9 Westbourne Terrace/London, W2' in unknown hand in ink on verso 11 x 9in. (28 x 22.7cm.)

From the artist to Elizabeth Smart & George Barker;
by descent to their daughter Georgina Barker.

'One day in 1956,' recalled Bruce Bernard, 'I found myself hanging some remarkable photographs on the walls of the basement gallery under David Archer's bookshop in Greek Street. They were mostly of street scenes in Paris and there were a few extraordinary portraits. Together they seemed to me the most interesting photographs I had ever seen.... [Deakin] was a very close friend for a time of the quixotic and endearing David Archer (though sometimes as severe as in his marvellous portrait) who gradually sold his family estate to finance his bookshops....Archer was the first publisher of the poetry of Dylan Thomas, George Barker, David Gasgoyne and Dom Moraes....' (John Deakin: Salvage of a Photographer, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1985, p.6)