A large wave crashes onto the shoreline. The photograph most likely shows the North Sea at the very turn of the 20th Century, as Whitley Bay-based commercial photographer Godfrey Hastings advertised for sale at this time a series of “Nautilus Series” views.

Godfrey Eldon Hastings: 1871-1914

Commercial photographer Godfrey Hastings was a photographer from Tynemouth, a member of a Quaker family, and educated at Ackworth, the Quaker boarding school in Yorkshire. (1.) Sometime after 1895, when postcard publisher Matthew Auty, founder of Auty Ltd. died, Hastings took over the business. So called real photographic post card (rppc) views from the turn of the 20th century can be found with the imprint GH WB: the photographer’s initials followed by the Whitley Bay initials. “Auty Ltd. claimed to have been the first to introduce the continental idea of picture postcards to the north of England and his views familiarised prospective visitors with the charms of the area.” (2.) …”Picture postcards were produced by Hastings from Auty’s plates as well as his own. The court size cards that Hastings issued from 1898 to 1900 are the earliest commercially produced cards to be found of Newcastle and the surrounding areas.” (3.)

In 1900, Hastings is mentioned in the pages of The Practical and Junior Photographer as being  Secretary of the 140-strong Newcastle-on-Tyne Photographic Association.

Similar to this seaside view of a large breaking wave, Hastings capitalized on the beauty of the North Sea in a series of photographic views he advertised as early as 1900. An advertisement of his appearing in Photograms of the Year 1900, illustrated with a halftone photograph of breaking waves over large rocks:

Nautilus Series of..Marine Photographs. From GODFREY HASTINGS, Whitley Bay, NORTHUMBERLAND, Or All Dealers In Fine Art Photographs. Liberal Discounts to the Trade. Photographic Work of all Kinds undertaken for Amateurs or the Trade.

1. Woman and Her Sphere website accessed 2024, post: September 6, 2012: WALKS/Suffrage Stories: Suffragettes and Tea Rooms: The Gardenia Restaurant
2. Heddon-on-Wall Local History Society website accessed 2024, post: Royal French Arms: 16/7/2018
3.  Hastings background: Collectors Weekly website: post: FIRE PLACE FOUNTAINS ABBEY AUTY SERIES GH WB No 1166