About this objectCarte-de-visite of Samuel "Gypsy" Draper. The image shows Draper seated on bedroom chair, his right elbow an an occasional table, with his violin rested on his left knee. His felt hat sits on the table.
Draper was a violinist who played at local dances and celebrations, including for the Delme Radcliffe family at Hitchin Priory. Some of the local Quakers diapproved of him and his playing and tried to have him moved on. Sometimes as revenge he would go and play outside their houses. When he did this to the Whiting family, Mr Whiting gathered his children together and took them to the bottom of the garden.
Draper lived with his family and their donkey in the woods around Hitchin for about 20 years. He features prominently in the Hitchin Market Place painting by Samuel Lucas Snr in which Lucas features many local people who were known to him in the middle of the 1800s.
Place MadeUnited Kingdom, England, Hertfordshire, Hitchin
MakerLatchmore, T.B.
Maker RolePhotographer
Date Made1870
Inscription and Markstrademark printed back buckle crowned,with text T.B.LATCHMORE BANCROFT trademark printed front T.B.LATCHMORE PHOTO. HITCHIN
Measurementsimage height 92mm image width 55mm mount height 105mm mount width 62mm
