The First Grisons Photographers in the Engadine

1860-1875

(Article in the Bündner Kalender 2006, Pierre Badrutt, Filisur)

 Photographers were active in the Grisons at a very early time:  foreigners such as Braun from Colmar in the Alsace or Kleinlerchler from Merano in the South Tyrol as well as Swiss including Garcin from Geneva, Richard from Männedorf, and Gabler from Interlaken.  They worked mainly as landscape photographers in the Engadine as well as in other Grisons valleys.  Their mass production was sold as a great novelty to an interested public in Switzerland and abroad.  A few roving photographers toured the Grisons valleys, also working as portrait specialists.  They came from Italy, Germany, and even Denmark in order to set up temporary studios in a hotel or winter garden.  Such advertisements popped up repeatedly in the Grisons press:

Andreas Thoma, Samedan

Local photographers also emerged at a very early date in the Engadine.  Photography meant a welcome second income for some; it was a “weekend hobby” for others.  An example of this was the housepainter Andreas Thoma from Samedan, who only photographed on Saturdays and Sundays.  The sole trace of this to date is an advertisement that appeared in the Fögl Ladin in September 1861 (Fig. 3). I have been unable so far to find evidence of portraits from his production.  

Josty Brothers, St. Moritz

The Josty brothers established themselves very early in St. Moritz (Fig. 4) Fögl d’Engiadina, 29 August 1863).  Dr. Christian Tarnuzer wrote in Der Rätische Jägerfürst Gian Colani in 1924: “The Josty brothers from Madulein in St. Moritz supplied a photographic reproduction of an oil painting (of Colani).  Their firm had operated a photo business from 1860 until the outset of the 1870s.  The painting has a Visit-card format and bears the following inscription: “Jan Marchet Colani of Pontresina, well-known chamois and wild game hunter, born in 1772, died in 1837; between the age of 20 and 65 he killed 2,700 chamois (once 12 in one day), two bears, two wolves, and two stags.” The image is said to have resulted in rapid sales.

The Josty brothers also supplied a second edition of their Colani picture in booklet form.  Its first page showed the photo of the hunter, while the other reproduced a photo of the oil painting then in the possession of Landamann J. Saratz in Pontresina along with a group of chamois by the painter W. Georgy.  A poem appears on the reverse side that was donated by the Josty brothers: “To the valiant hunter Jan Marchet Colani  / Who among our people doesn’t know him / The boulder man, the first chamois hunter. /… signed, the Josty brothers, Photographic Studio in St. Moritz (Upper Engadine).”  Unfortunately it has been impossible until now to find these two objects!

Portraits of the Josty brothers from the early years (1860-1865) bore an oval rubber stamp (Fig. 5).  Numerous pictures discovered show that the Josty brothers possessed a well-equipped studio in St. Moritz with all the requisites needed at the time.  The following portraits of the three daughters of a confectioner from Bevers, Gian Bernhard, were all taken on the same day (Figs. 6, 7, 8; Margretta, Maria-Andrietta, and Anna Bernhard.  Visit-card format.  Pictures are from the album of Anna Badrutt-Bernhard, private collection). Other pictures are known from the same time.

The later portraits from about 1866 have a cultivated “modern” firm signet on the reverse side (Fig. 9, 10; Photo collection of P. Badrutt, Filisur).  A similar picture with the identical signet could be dated during 1866.

Apparently the Josty brothers were not only active as portrait photographers.  They also photographed the Roman Catholic Church of St. Moritz, built in 1866, as the rubber stamp proves (Fig. 11; photo collection of the Documentary Library, St. Moritz).

The following advertisements demonstrate that the Josty brothers also worked part-time in the Survelva area.   The “mobile studio” was always in the same hotels: the Hotel Lukmanier in Ilanz and the Krone in Disentis.  The second advertisement clearly focuses on Christmas.  Photography was a novelty, and it later became part of one’s “good image” to donate a portrait to relatives for this occasion (Fig. 12, 13; advertisements from La Ligia Grischa of 29 November 1867 and 31 October 1867).  Uniquely the name “Josty” was written here as “Josti”. 

Who were these Josty brothers?  There were Johann (1839-1871) and Daniel (1834-1891) Josty, sons of the Josty brewery in Berlin.  Their parents were Rudolf Josty and Ida, née Josty.  While the elder brother, Johann, died in 1871, Daniel turned up in Bristol (England), where he took over the photo studio of a Carlo Alberto.  He popped up at various Bristol addresses [LS3] during the following years: from 1874 to 1879 under the name “Josty & Co., D”, in 1873 in Queen’s Road, from 1879 as D. Josty” at 5 Perry Road, in 1882 at 882 Merrywood, Southville, and in 1883 at Wine Street.  The 1881 Bristol census counted him as an “artist”.  He was married to Anna Dorothea Pfister.  The marriage produced 14 children, of which four died in infancy.  Descendants of Daniel Josty still live in Great Britain today.

Andreas Melcher, Champfèr

“From 1863-64 Andreas Melcher built a photo studio northeast of the A. Robbi house that he ran 10-12 years”, wrote Andrea Müller-Meyer in Romansh in a 1963 article in the Fögl Ladin entitled “Istorgia da Champfèr”. 

An advertisement appeared in the 23 July 1864 Fögl d’Engiadina on the opening of Melcher’s studio (Fig. 14). Another advertisement shows that Melcher also moved his studio as a roving photographer (Fig. 15; Fögl d’Engiadina of 27 July 1864).

 A Melcher portrait of Anna Bernhard-Rödel exists in Visit-card format (Fig. 16).

Alexander Flury, Pontresina

Alexander Flury opened his studio in Pontresina in 1863.  This is verified by his participation in the 1^st National Expo in Zurich in 1883 (Fig. 17).

At the end of April 1864 an advertisement appeared in Fögl d’Engiadina that announced the move to a new studio (Fig. 18).

Flury was a mountain climber, mountain guide, and photographer (Fig. 19; taken by Mrs. E. Maine, from Le Massif de la Bernina in 1894, by Aug. Lorris and E.A. Martell with the collaboration of Rev. W.A.B. Coolidge and J. Caviezel).  He left a very great legacy behind him. It shows that Flury was a photographer of landscapes and portraits at the same time.  Only the first years of his activity are highlighted in the following.

Examples from 1863: There is no printed Visit-card, no rubber stamp, only a hand-written notation on the reverse side: “Alex Flury, photographer, Pontresina” and the number of the plate.  The portrait of Peter Michel, the “King of Monstein” (Fig. 20; private collection, Filisur) and that of Margreth Michel of Davos, seen here as the bride of Hugo Richter (Fig. 21; private collection of the Richter family) illustrate this signature style on the reverse side.  Both persons portrayed came from the Landwasser valley and had the same family name, yet they were not related to each other.  But the presence of both in the Engadine is verified.  To be noted is the painted background, which is identical in both pictures.

Fig. 22 (Collection of  P. Badrutt, Filisur) surely originated from about the same time: the border is from the same rough, thin cardboard.  But it is highly likely that the reverse side carries the oldest “company stamp” of Alexander Flury – in dark blue here, the same stamp also existed in red.

The business must have flourished from the outset, since Flury already employed several coworkers in the summer of 1871.  Two of them could be identified by name:

Fig. 23 (private collection) shows a hand-colored picture that probably originated during the early 1860s.

There is an entire series with views from the Engadine and the Bernina area by Alexander Flury from the 1868-1870 period.  All carry a new company signet.  The same photographs also often exist on neutral borders.  I assume that this was caused by a “bottleneck” in delivering the borders:  the supplier was in Vienna, and the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870… (Fig. 24).

Beside his studio in Pontresina, Alexander Flury had also operated a subsidiary later in St. Moritz.  Two items verify this:  the reverse sides of the portrait of Anna Badrutt-Bernhard (Fig. 25), taken shortly before her death in 1875 and the photo of Christian Badrutt-Bernard with daughter Anna-Emerita (Fig. 26; from the album of Anna-Emerita Badrutt).

At the same time, however, identical borders existed with the following address: Photographic Lab, Alexander Flury, Cottage Croix d’Ouchy, Lausanne (Fig. 27).  Hence Flury seems to be the first photographer from the Grisons who set up a subsidiary outside the canton.

 The story of Alexander Flury is still far from ended at this point, and I am engaged in continuing research on it. 

 New photographs repeatedly emerge in Canton Grisons – not only in the capital, Chur, but also in major centers such as Davos and Scuol – or even in unexpected spots like Landquart (1866), Splügen (1866), Fürstenau (1866), Sent (1880), and Zillis (1886).

In order to continue pursuit of my research work, I always need new material.  Unfortunately during “house-cleaning” a radical clean-up often occurs, and thus numerous old photographs disappear in the garbage.  A few surface in flea markets.

 I have learned in my research efforts to let family albums – often those of strangers – do the talking.  Hence a great deal unknown could be given a highly probable identity.  Please make these old albums and photos available for this search!  The only thing needed is a good scan image of the front and back side as well as data on the place where it was found.  Thanks in advance, and remember: Photos are “cultural objects”, even if they are anonymous.

(Translation: Lyn Shepard, Filisur)
Copyright by Bündner Kalender, c/o Casanova Druck, 7000 Chur / Switzerland

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