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Find My Past Blog - Ask the photo expert - possible wedding photo

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  • Find My Past Blog - Ask the photo expert - possible wedding photo

    Our photo expert, Jayne Shrimpton, analyses your family photos.
    Doreen Tyrrell sent us her photo and asked:
    ‘I wondered if you could possibly date the attached photo. I am hoping it is around 1890 to confirm who I think it is, but it could possibly 1902-ish?’
    Click to enlarge

    Jayne says:
    ‘It’s perfectly natural for family historians to guess at the identities of ancestors in old photographs that aren’t labelled with a name or date – a common scenario! Having them accurately dated will always help to either confirm or disprove a theory, ruling different possibilities in or out. The visual evidence doesn’t lie and, particularly, the clothing and accessories worn by past family members in a photograph can only date from within a certain time period. Here we see a youngish couple, whose dress we would expect to be fairly up-to-date for its time, whatever their social background.
    When women appear in a photograph, this always offers a closer timeframe than male-only portraits, since female fashions changed regularly and can usually be pinpointed to within a few years. This lady wears the separate blouse and skirt that was becoming popular in the early 20th century, her plain tailored skirt fitting smoothly over the hips and shaped with panels to flare out towards the hemline following the fashionable line.
    As usual the blouse is the more decorative garment and here we see the typical blouse of the early-Edwardian era, full in front, to accentuate the bust, and embellished with neat vertical tucks on the sleeves. The sleeve style gives the best dating clue, as this shape, narrow in the upper arm and widening towards the wrist, where it is gathered into a fitted cuff, is typical of the years 1901-1904.
    Hat styles are also helpful for dating and, although several types of ornate hat were worn at any given time, this shape, worn at a slight slant on the head, is again characteristic of the early-1900s. You don’t mention why you have in mind the years 1890 or 1902, but a date of 1902 would certainly fit this photograph perfectly.
    Men’s appearance is not possible to date as precisely as that of women but the man here wears the characteristic three-piece lounge suit of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, an ornate watch chain suspending a seal worn across the waistcoat front. Interestingly, instead of the usual formal starched shirt collar and tie of this era, he wears a black neckerchief: labouring men often wore a handkerchief or scarf around the neck, so I would guess that this ancestor worked in the manual trades.
    The pose of this couple, one standing, the other seated, is typical of an early studio wedding photograph. There is no indication of a wedding here in the sense of white dress or flowers; however, this was not unusual in the early-1900s when many ordinary brides simply wore a good daytime outfit and decorative hat on their wedding day. Notice, though, how the lady prominently displays rings on the third finger of her left hand: this could also signify that marriage was the occasion that prompted this photograph. Hopefully 1902 was the date of a recorded family wedding and this has now helped you to establish the identity of these ancestors.’
    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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