Jabez William Small b. 1840

Also known as Jabez Smail, Jabez Smale, John Small
  • Artist (Photographer)
Photographer and photographic dealer Jabez Small exhibited English and foreign, coloured and plain photographs, and ran photographic studios in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide between 1870 and 1900. Jabez William Small was the brother of Thomas Stephen Small, who was also for a time a photographic dealer with George Wills Priston (who had married their sister Elizabeth).

photographer, photographic dealer and builder(?), may have been the 'T. Smail’ who was living in the Barrabool Hills near Geelong, Victoria, in July 1860 when he called tenders for a house to be built there for John Heard. By 1866 'Small’ was in Melbourne, in a photographic partnership with George Priston at 73 Little Collins Street. They exhibited English and foreign, coloured and plain photographs at the 1866 Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition. By 1871 Priston and Small had separate Melbourne studios (Small’s was in the Royal Arcade) but the partnership apparently continued until the 1890s. They also opened branches in Sydney (1870-1900), Brisbane (1893-94) and Adelaide (1894-97). Jabez W. Small was often referred to as Smale or Smail and he also seems to be the 'John Small’ listed as a photographer of Chapel Street, Prahran, in the Melbourne Directory for 1863.

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Writers:
Staff Writer
Date written:
1992
Last updated:
2011