Please could you give your opinions on the date of this photo and, more importantly really, the ages of the children and the youngest possible age you would give for the man.
Heavy beards are so ageing (OH is 53 & had one like that until Monday when he pruned it right back) over 55 definitely, as for the boys about 9 on the left & 11 on the right, but of course they could be small for their ages.
Are you able to read the lettering on the sailor's hat? The studio doesn't appear to have been too swish, the bare boards are showing & the carpet is a bit rucked up.
A contact sent me the photo, and if the boys are, say, 8 and 11/12 (there's nearly four years between them - IF they are who she says they are).....then the photo would be around 1880, which I think may be OK, but the man (their father) would only be 45 and I think that's pushing things too far!
The only other option is that she has chosen the wrong pair of sons.
The man died in Dec 1899 aged 64. By that time his youngest sons (he had four sons altogether) would have been 10 and 15. If in the photo the man was, say, 62 and the boys were 8 and 13, would that be a better alternative?
Yes - that seems perfectly possible to me. You did ask for a youngest possible age for the man. 62 seems more probable, although the beard hides a lot!
Anne
Ooops posted at the same time! The sailor and the boy may well be the same person or brothers but clearly completely different in age. The sailor looks about 17 or 18 to me.
I'm not very good at dating things so I don't usually join in on here but you have been so much help to me and others in the past that when I saw your name I wanted to see if I could help. I think the man looks more like 60 than 45, mainly because of his hair. In the other photo the boy doesn't look at all like the younger boy. He does look similar to the older boy, so it's probably a family likeness and you could very well be right about it being the other two sons.
I hope you don't mind, I am no expert at renovation and I'm sure Rachel etc would be happy to do them for you but I took the liberty of removing the crease from the mother and son one.
Oh lol Chrissie!!! I thought I was going crazy for a minute!!
I just thought I would get rid of the creases on that photo, but hadn't got round to starting. I was thinking I must do it when I opened this thread, but then I found, as if my by magic, it had been done!
Thanks very much indeed!!
I have just written to my contact asking what she thinks about the boys being the last two of the family.........
I think the Norfolk jacket was popular before the Edwardian era too. Wasn't it made fashionable by Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales?
My contact now says the man is definitely the one who died in 1899 as she has other named photos of him. The questionmark is over the identity of the boys.
It's quite possible that he was a navy cadat on HMS Victory.
Taken from Wikipedia -
In 1889, Victory was fitted up as a Naval School of Telegraphy. She soon became a proper Signal School, and signal ratings from ships paying off were sent to Victory, instead of the barracks, for a two-month training course. The School remained on Victory until 1904, when training was transferred temporarily to HMS Hercules, and in 1906 the whole School was moved to a permanent establishment at the Chatham Royal Naval Barracks.
Well the way it was left was that the photo of the woman and young man was taken in 1893 as it has the date and their names on the back in the handwriting of the woman.
The other photo is of a man who died in 1899, probably with his youngest two sons, taken in 1897ish.
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