Magic lantern slide set 'The Lifeboat'

A complete set of magic lantern life model slides, entitled "The Lifeboat", 21 slides in total, 20 slides plus 1 duplicate (number 6 in black and white). Manufactured by Bamforth and Company, 1899. All hand coloured except for numbers 6, 7, 8 and 16. From a collection of life model magic lantern slides, previously the lending library of Riley Brothers of Bradford.

Life model slides are photographic magic lantern slides in which costumed models are posed in scenes or locations to illustrate narratives, songs and other texts. They were produced commercially between the 1870s and the First World War. Typical subjects included temperance tales of alcoholism and other social vices, popular songs, recitations, comic subjects and religious services. They would come in sets which could be anything from 2 to 60 but averaged 12.

James Bamforth started in business in 1870 as a studio photographer and began to produce magic lantern slides around 1883, at its studio at Station Road, Holmfirth. Bamforth's production of photographic lantern slides was so successful that in 1898 a factory extension had to be built onto the photography studio. To begin with, the company specialised in 'life model' slides sets which usually conveyed moral, temperance, and religious themes. Local people were used as the models who were photographed either outdoors or for indoor scenes, in front of a painted backcloth.