Background
Joseph was the son of Eliza and Benjamin Cundall, a draper.
Joseph was the son of Eliza and Benjamin Cundall, a draper.
He provided employment for many of the best artists of the day by using them as illustrators. He trained as a printer in Ipswich, and aged 16 found work in London with Charles Tilt, a bookseller and publisher. He wrote two books for Tilt and succeeded North Hailes in 1841 at the Juvenile Library, 12 Old Bond Street.
In 1848 he started a lending library for children called Saint George"s Reading Library.
In 1843 Cundall became publisher of the Home Treasury children"s books, a series conceived and edited by Henry Cole under the pseudonym Felix Summerly. Cole, who was later knighted, became the first director of South Kensington Museum which later changed its name to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Because of his association with Henry Cole, his early business ventures were successful, but by 1849 he had gone bankrupt. During the same year he started a partnership with H M Addey and moved his business premises to 21 Old Bond Street.
Cundall is noted for his photographs detailing the construction of the Steamship Great Eastern between 1854 and 1856, and his portraits of Crimean Heroes in 1856.
In 1871 the British Government sent Cundall to Bayeux to manage the first photographic record of the Bayeux Tapestry. Cundall"s photographic business traded at first as Cundall, Howlett & Company, then Cundall, Howlett & Downes and between 1866 and 1872 as Cundall & Fleming.