A VICTORIAN mobile photographer’s studio, which has spent most of its life at Swanage, is looking for a new home.

The studio will go under the Charterhouse Auction gavel on Friday, August 5.

Richard Bromell from Charterhouse said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for someone to acquire what we understand to be a unique piece of Victorian photography history which would make a stunning studio or office.”

The travelling photographer’s studio was commissioned by the Pouncy family of Dorchester. Father and son photographers John and Walter Pouncy along with subsequent professional photographers, took a vast number of photos of seaside visitors to Swanage over the years in the studio.

This horse drawn studio has an interior with fittings for retaining the backdrops, a small darkroom for changing and processing plates, a glazed roof section, a glazed side, an entrance, an exit and has sprung wheels.

Over the years it received various changes and has previously been restored. In the current ownership for several decades, it continued to be used as a photographer’s studio but is now needing some restoration and conservation having lived in a field near Wareham.

Estimated at £8,000 to £12,000, it comes with history, photographs and provenance dating it back to the end of the late 19th century.

The auction is being held at Charterhouse, The Long Street Salerooms, Sherborne Dorset although the studio remains onsite at Wareham from where it will need to be collected.

Richard Bromell and the team at Charterhouse can be contacted on 01935 812277 or at info@charterhouse-auction.com.