The same desk?

[KiwiChris]

I have these two photos, and it looks to me like the same desk in each of them

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k132/KiwiChris_2006/Unknown1-1.jpg

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k132/KiwiChris_2006/Unknown2.jpg

Does it look as though they were taken the same day, and are perhaps mother and daughters, or just that they were the same house or studio?

Any ideas as to the date and age of the subjects?

[JayG]

Hi Christine, it's the same desk but I don't think they've been taken the same day. No good with dates but would say 1890's.

Cheers

Jay

[LondonLass]

They are both studio portraits (see the way the drapes are arranged and obvious backdrop in the first photo) and it appears to be the same desk. It could be the same date, or just the local photographic studio, returned to at some interval. You'd expect the same expensive props to be used for several years. Are there any clues on the reverse of the pictures? They often bear the details of the photographer.

[Georgette]

The girl standing up in the first picture does look like the lady in the second photo, so they could be mother and daughter.

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Same desk, curtain, carpet and very possibly the same chair, but different backdrop!

[Olde Crone Holden]

In Larkrise to Candleford (the book, not the abomination of a TV series!) those three-cornered aprons are mentioned as being a high-fashion item which came and went in the late 1800s - say the 1890s.

But the older lady is wearing an elaborate bustle and I'm sure they were much earlier than the 1890s? Maybe it was her best frock, though.

(AWWWW, look, they've got a springer spaniel!)

OC

[don.t]

I would place these two photograph's to have been taken in the early to mid 1880's. The square shoulder area to the bodice on the two younger women indicates to me that it was before 1889 when kick up's came in and prior to the fizzed hair style that predominated the mid to late part of that decade. Also in 1889 the bustle had shrank from the straw filled pad that had been worn previously to become a mere pad. The woman sitting down is wearing what appears to be a handkerchief dress with a cuirasse bodice which would also fit into the timeline given as would the style of dress worn by the older woman in the other photograph. The piece of furniture seen in both photographs is known as a Davenport Bureau.

don