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Our photo expert, Jayne Shrimpton, analyses your family photos.
Margaret Noble sent us her photo and asked:
‘I would be grateful if you could give me an approximate date for this photograph. I think the lady is my great-great grandmother, who was a Roman Catholic. Any other information that you can glean from the photo would be very welcome. Many thanks.’
Click to enlarge
Jayne says:
‘This professional card-mounted studio portrait is likely to be one of the two standard types of photograph that dominated Victorian and early Edwardian portrait photography: either the small carte de visite or the larger cabinet print which was more popular in the late 19th century. This is a fairly late example, as seen from the dark coloured mount, printed with gold lettering. Black, bottle green and, less commonly, chocolate brown were fashionable colours for photographic card mounts for about 20 years only, c.1885-1905. Many family collections contain photographs on dark mounts, so knowing their period of production provides a helpful dating clue.
Here we see a middle-aged or slightly older lady seated in the three-quarter length pose characteristic of the late-19th century. The style of her clothes is very distinctive and offers an accurate idea of when the photo was taken. Her tight-fitting bodice with pointed centre front, high collar and narrow sleeves was fashionable during the later 1880s and beginning of the 1890s. We can’t see the exact shape of her skirt from her seated position but the slight draping of the front fabric suggests that the back may feature a modest projection - the late phase of the 1880s bustle sometimes seen around the turn of the decade. Her day cap was an older lady’s accessory by this time and its tall shape is again typical of the late-1880s or early-1890s. On a younger woman her dress style would usually indicate a close timeframe of c.1887-90, but, being older, she may be rather behind the times, so I suggest that we consider the years 1887-93.
A person’s religion is rarely evident from a photograph but what is striking about this lady’s appearance is that she is wearing mourning dress – the special clothing and accessories recommended following the death of a close relative and an important element of Victorian death ritual. Older ladies often wore black, therefore, it can be hard to positively identify mourning in photographs but here we see very clearly the bands of crape on her bodice lapels, cuffs and in a deep swathe on her lower skirt. Crape, a crimped, dull silk gauze fabric, has a distinctive textured appearance and since crape was only worn for mourning, when spotted in a photo it always signifies bereavement. In fact, mourning would have been the event that inspired this portrait, as having a photograph taken in formal mourning dress was a significant aspect of the occasion. With mourning dress, nothing was supposed to shine or gleam: notice how she also wears a dull black metal watch chain and black mourning brooch.
Victorian women wore a more recognisable form of mourning dress than men and widows bore a heavy burden as they officially publicly mourned their deceased husbands for at least two and a half years. Mourning dress is a complex subject but the presence of touches of white here, on her cap and cuffs, suggest that this lady may have been in the second stage of mourning when she was photographed. I don’t know your 2 x great grandmother’s dates, but if she lost her husband in the late-1880s or early-1890s, then this confirms that she is very likely to be the ancestor pictured here.’
Jayne Shrimpton
If you’d like to send your photo to Jayne Shrimpton, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Jayne only has time to analyse two photos each month, but if yours wasn’t chosen this time, you could be lucky next month!
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Please note: This post has originated from a news feed from an external website.
Family Tree Forum neither endorses nor is responsible for the views of the author or any other content.
Margaret Noble sent us her photo and asked:
‘I would be grateful if you could give me an approximate date for this photograph. I think the lady is my great-great grandmother, who was a Roman Catholic. Any other information that you can glean from the photo would be very welcome. Many thanks.’
Click to enlargeJayne says:
‘This professional card-mounted studio portrait is likely to be one of the two standard types of photograph that dominated Victorian and early Edwardian portrait photography: either the small carte de visite or the larger cabinet print which was more popular in the late 19th century. This is a fairly late example, as seen from the dark coloured mount, printed with gold lettering. Black, bottle green and, less commonly, chocolate brown were fashionable colours for photographic card mounts for about 20 years only, c.1885-1905. Many family collections contain photographs on dark mounts, so knowing their period of production provides a helpful dating clue.
Here we see a middle-aged or slightly older lady seated in the three-quarter length pose characteristic of the late-19th century. The style of her clothes is very distinctive and offers an accurate idea of when the photo was taken. Her tight-fitting bodice with pointed centre front, high collar and narrow sleeves was fashionable during the later 1880s and beginning of the 1890s. We can’t see the exact shape of her skirt from her seated position but the slight draping of the front fabric suggests that the back may feature a modest projection - the late phase of the 1880s bustle sometimes seen around the turn of the decade. Her day cap was an older lady’s accessory by this time and its tall shape is again typical of the late-1880s or early-1890s. On a younger woman her dress style would usually indicate a close timeframe of c.1887-90, but, being older, she may be rather behind the times, so I suggest that we consider the years 1887-93.
A person’s religion is rarely evident from a photograph but what is striking about this lady’s appearance is that she is wearing mourning dress – the special clothing and accessories recommended following the death of a close relative and an important element of Victorian death ritual. Older ladies often wore black, therefore, it can be hard to positively identify mourning in photographs but here we see very clearly the bands of crape on her bodice lapels, cuffs and in a deep swathe on her lower skirt. Crape, a crimped, dull silk gauze fabric, has a distinctive textured appearance and since crape was only worn for mourning, when spotted in a photo it always signifies bereavement. In fact, mourning would have been the event that inspired this portrait, as having a photograph taken in formal mourning dress was a significant aspect of the occasion. With mourning dress, nothing was supposed to shine or gleam: notice how she also wears a dull black metal watch chain and black mourning brooch.
Victorian women wore a more recognisable form of mourning dress than men and widows bore a heavy burden as they officially publicly mourned their deceased husbands for at least two and a half years. Mourning dress is a complex subject but the presence of touches of white here, on her cap and cuffs, suggest that this lady may have been in the second stage of mourning when she was photographed. I don’t know your 2 x great grandmother’s dates, but if she lost her husband in the late-1880s or early-1890s, then this confirms that she is very likely to be the ancestor pictured here.’
Jayne ShrimptonIf you’d like to send your photo to Jayne Shrimpton, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Jayne only has time to analyse two photos each month, but if yours wasn’t chosen this time, you could be lucky next month!
More...
Please note: This post has originated from a news feed from an external website.
Family Tree Forum neither endorses nor is responsible for the views of the author or any other content.