The 1911 census records that Albert and Rosina
Shoesmith had two daughters, Florence Lillian
Shoesmith born in 1901 and Nora Shoesmith, born in
about 1909, both at Hastings. Later a son, Leonard
Shoesmith, was born on October 1, 1919. On Len's
birth certificate his father is described as a "Master Stationer".
Albert Shoesmith and his family remained at 4 Earl Street until at least 1915. However, early 1920’s Directories list him 154 Queens Road, which served for many years as his business headquarters as well as his home.
Shoesmith became a prolific postcard publisher. By 1908 he was selling coloured halftone cards of Hastings labelled "A. Shoesmith, Postcard Publisher, Hastings" on the back. Modern collectors tend to ignore the cards because they are rather dark and the colouring is quite crude. Shoesmith's real photographic cards attract much more attention.
Postmarks indicate that Shoesmith was publishing
real photographic cards under his own name by
1909. By the start of the First World War his
output of real photographics had grown to cover
not just Hastings but a wide scattering of places,
for example Eastbourne and Burwash. The
photographs, usually printed in black and white,
have handwritten capitalised captions and in most
cases white borders. The lettering tends to slope
backwards and is often a little ragged. Some cards
are labelled on the reverse "Shoesmith's Real Photo Series". Several of the Hastings real photographic cards featured photographs that had already been reproduced as coloured halftones.
In addition to issuing his "own label" cards, Shoesmith also sold cards published by the Sussex Postcard Co. and the Sussex Photographic Co. Both firms had begun producing cards from an undisclosed Hastings address in 1905. By 1907 cards published by the Postcard Co. named 17 Stone Street as the company's address, which was Shoesmith's shop. Likewise, by 1909 the cards of the Sussex Photographic Co. gave 4 Earl Street as their address.
Who set up the two firms is an unsolved problem,
but it may have been Shoesmith himself, perhaps
as a joint venture with an unrecorded partner.
Whatever their origins, both companies were
clearly operating under his control after only a
few years. By about 1910, real photographic cards
of Hastings began appearing in two versions, both
claiming the Earl Street address: one labelled
Shoesmith and the other the Sussex Photographic
Co.
Around 1912 Shoesmith issued some real photographic cards of Hastings that were labelled on the reverse "Sussex Seaside Series", though they were mere clones of Sussex Postcard Co. real photograhic cards. Even the serial numbers were retained.
By 1915 real photographic cards of places such as Burwash, Beckley and Hastings went
on sale that were labelled on the reverse "Palacette Studio, Hastings". Some of the
photographs had previously appeared on cards that Shoesmith issued, and it is possible
that he was the publisher of the Palacette Studio cards. However, some Palacette
cards have captions written by George Chapman in his characteristic, backwards-
Shoesmith & Etheridge
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