Page 16 - Bulletin 7 2003

13

interest in his subject to take such a flight as to make his understandable omissions so
regrettable.

There are three Elliott photographs of the interesting homestead of Paarl Diamant, of

which not a trace now remains; not one of these shows what the front looked like

although the rare back gable is well recorded. Presumably it did not have a front
gable, or else Elliott would have wanted to record it, but today we are interested in

facades even if they have no gables. Elliott left us photographs of the front of the
Stellenbosch ‘Burger House’, but none of them shows its back or its annexe, the Van

der Riet House, now gone. There are numerous records of the front of Grosvenor
House, taken at various dates, but none of its back or outbuildings. Another

farmhouse to have vanished is Saxenburg, unique in so many respects; Elliott took

several photographs of it, even of the back, but this time it is the front gable, an
unusual one, which is not clearly shown.

A last word about the Elliott Collection as it exists now and how its usefulness could
be increased. It should be noted at the outset that not all the photographs Elliott took

are in the Collection. Several good architectural shots of which there are no negatives
appear in books like Fairbridge’s. Perhaps these could be re-photographed and

included. An index of the Collection does exist, but could be much improved. Good
prints of all negatives in numerical order are easily accessible for inspection, but

unless one is looking for a specific object such as somebody’s portrait or the gateway

of some or other farm, the study of a general subject usually involves having to go
through all ten thousand photographs. At present there is less system in the collection

than there can ever have been during Elliott’s lifetime. Perhaps the present negative
numbers could be regarded as provisional ones, and the whole collection re-arranged

into two main categories: original photographs (with sub-categories like furniture,
architecture, shipping, portraits) and reproductions (documents, paintings, etc.). On a

card index or on the backs of the prints any information that may be or become

available (date, date exhibited, catalogue notes etc.) should be provided. Any system
would in fact mean an improvement and would be worth the effort: the Elliott