Playing 'detectives'.

seany65

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How often have you watched a 'private eye' detective on tv and seen how they ask their 'assistant' to do some research on the 'net, and the assistant, always using a search-engine no-one has ever heard of, wibbles their fingers at the computer keyboard and within a couple of minutes they know everything there is to know about either the victim, the dodgy witness or any of the suspects?

Thousands of times, yes?

Well, I was thinking about that when I saw a label inside a Gevaert Gevabox which said:

"F.Futcher and Son. Photographic Specialists. 19 Fisherton Street Salisbury".

So I decided to wibble my fingers at my computer keyboard and i found a bit of info. and some photos.

The Camera and label:



Which led me to the shop:



Which led me to a photo of the Son, Tony Futcher, who passed away a few years ago, and was well liked and respected according to the local paper who published the article and photo:



I haven't got the article but I remember it saying that some years after the camera shop opened Tony bought the shop next door, No.17 and opened it as a toy shop.

There is a photo of another photo portrait/landscape photographer's shop owned by an F.Futcher in Warminster the 1890's. I presume it's the same family who have already been mentioned, although I think the F.Futcher in Warminster may be Tony's Grandfather.

The Warminster shop:



So it seems that an F.Futcher had a photographer's shop in Warminster, and either another shop, as a second branch, was opened in Salisbury, or he or his son, possibly also called F.Futcher, moved to Salisbury and opened a photographer's shop at No.19 Fisherton Street. Some years later his son, Tony Futcher, bought No.17 Fisherton street and opened it as a toy shop. During the time Tony was at his father's shop at No.19, either Tony or his Father sold the Gevabox I bought on ebay last year.

Copyright in all photos owned by the original photographer or the newspaper.

PS. Can anyone tell what it says below "Photographer" in the Warminster photo? I think it says "Secure the snail of fire the substance..." but I'm not sure.
 
How often have you watched a 'private eye' detective on tv and seen how they ask their 'assistant' to do some research on the 'net, and the assistant, always using a search-engine no-one has ever heard of, wibbles their fingers at the computer keyboard and within a couple of minutes they know everything there is to know about either the victim, the dodgy witness or any of the suspects?

Thousands of times, yes?

Well, I was thinking about that when I saw a label inside a Gevaert Gevabox which said:

"F.Futcher and Son. Photographic Specialists. 19 Fisherton Street Salisbury".

So I decided to wibble my fingers at my computer keyboard and i found a bit of info. and some photos.

The Camera and label:



Which led me to the shop:



Which led me to a photo of the Son, Tony Futcher, who passed away a few years ago, and was well liked and respected according to the local paper who published the article and photo:



I haven't got the article but I remember it saying that some years after the camera shop opened Tony bought the shop next door, No.17 and opened it as a toy shop.

There is a photo of another photo portrait/landscape photographer's shop owned by an F.Futcher in Warminster the 1890's. I presume it's the same family who have already been mentioned, although I think the F.Futcher in Warminster may be Tony's Grandfather.

The Warminster shop:



So it seems that an F.Futcher had a photographer's shop in Warminster, and either another shop, as a second branch, was opened in Salisbury, or he or his son, possibly also called F.Futcher, moved to Salisbury and opened a photographer's shop at No.19 Fisherton Street. Some years later his son, Tony Futcher, bought No.17 Fisherton street and opened it as a toy shop. During the time Tony was at his father's shop at No.19, either Tony or his Father sold the Gevabox I bought on ebay last year.

Copyright in all photos owned by the original photographer or the newspaper.

PS. Can anyone tell what it says below "Photographer" in the Warminster photo? I think it says "Secure the snail of fire the substance..." but I'm not sure.

Do I read Salisbury? The Salisbury, the novichoque and so on Salisbury? :eek:

That's much too a political topic... :D
 
Yes, you read 'Salisbury'. But weren't the novichok poisonings done outside Salisbury?

Anyway, I've had these photos from long before then and I've been meaning to post them for ages.
 
Thanks for the link johnnyrod.

I've just done a search while on the 2nd link of your post for 'F. Futcher' and I found this:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...quA1IQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=f. futcher&f=false

(if the link works) a photo taken by F.Futcher and son in 1911, after their move to Fisherton street, Salisbury. You may have to scroll upwards a little to see the photo called "The Salisbury Giant, Hob-Nob and friends, June 1911."

I'd say that means F.Futcher had a son also called F.Futcher, and his son was called Tony, as I think Tony would not have been born at the time the photo was taken.
 
I read "Secure the Shalow, free (or fire) the substance tak....." I have no idea what that might mean.
 
"Secure the snail of fire the substance..."

I quite like that. It's possibly just a bad translation of something else. Like the non English speaking person who met the queen, and after holding her hand proudly told her "Equal goes it loose", which is probably the best thing I have ever heard. To her credit, she just smiled and moved on down the line.

I badly want a T-shirt w/ equal goes it loose written on it. Lord knows what it means, it probably means nothing at all, but it is like poetry to me. Someone once said that the difference between a story and a poem is that a story is about something, while a poem just is.

You must watch more modern private eye films than me. Sherlock Holmes just kept everything in his head, and Perry Mason had Della and Paul do all the fact finding drudge work by making calls and talking to people. The guys on Dragnet went around knocking on doors and asking questions, and Charles Bronson used his camera in the mercifully short lived series of Man With A Camera. My favorite private eye though was Peter Gunn, First, the name was great, his girlfriend was beautiful and could actually sing, and the theme music was wonderful. Here's the first episode from the series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaMlsgijzuM
 
Steve, I'm talking about more modern private detectives who get their assistants to faff about on the interwebnet, while they themselves follow suspects etc.
 
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