Partridge & Co.

Booksellers and stationers, 65 Grove Road, Eastbourne. The name "Partridge & Co." appears on a series of sepia-toned borderless real photographic cards of Eastbourne of the type that an anonymous firm (widely believed to have been Bender and Co. of Croydon) printed, starting around 1909. One card (of St John's Church, Meads) has even been found with the special "butterfly" or "double B" logo that this firm used for some of its cards. It appears, therefore, that Partridge & Co. shared the same supplier as their competitors, Gowland Bros. and Richard Fish & Son. However, they very definitely did not share the same photographs. Some of the Partridge & Co. photographs are, in fact, distinctly out-of-the-ordinary. One notable card shows a group of holidaymakers paddling in the sea admiring a sea-plane belonging to Eastbourne Aviation. The photograph was probably taken in 1912 or 1913. It is reasonable to assume that Partridge & Co. took the photographs for their cards themselves, or bought them from an Eastbourne photographer, but then sent them off to be printed elsewhere.

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