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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: maintrain on Thursday 23 April 09 21:47 BST (UK)
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Hi
Can anybody help date the attached photograph. Haven't managed to find the photographer yet although I know it was taken in Dublin.
I'm not certain who the sitter is so a date would help identify her.
Many Thanks
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Hi maintrain,
Welcome to Rootschat, what a lovely picture this is. I will look for the photographer in daylight, I cannot see it well in this light.
Lovely hat she has!
Rabbit B ;D
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Older women are particularly difficult to date and there's not much stylewise to give anything of accuracy,however the style and composition of the picture suggests a date of late 1880's but could easily be 1890's.The lady looks to be in mourning wear which is reinforced by the black card stock.I would suggest the 1st. year of mourning.
jim
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Hi Jim,
I've been trying to trace the photographer on the Dublin board so will add the link here:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=376070.new
Given your dates, the most likely candidate now was widowed 1892 so the first year would limit the range to 1892-93.
However, from the link you can see that we are having little succes finding if that address could have existed any earlier than 1900ish.
Is it possible that someone would have re-issued a "mourning photo" on the black mount at a later date?
Otherwise, I will go back to thinking that maybe a parent or other relative whose name also began with "C" of the printer called Christopher Mooney previously owned the property in some form and was the actual photographer.
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Mmmmm....a bit of a puzzle,I can't see anything in this that would date it post 1910.
I can't get much from her dress style but her hair is too severe for this period and belongs 1880's-90's as does the hat.
Her dress is plain and straight which is a feature in 1890's-1900's.
The setting with this Roman ballustrade also 1880's-90's,by 1910 sets were much plainer and had gone back to an 1860's-70's style.
If she was a particularly old fashioned gal and the photographer a bit of a stick-in-the-mud I suppose you could push this up to 1905,but that would be kicking & screaming.
jim
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Hi Jim,
I've no doubt that you're right about the timing of the actual photo. There was a little uncertainty about whether it was the lady widowed in 1892 or a later photo of one of her daughters. The lack of any earlier references to the address suggested that it might be one of the next generation but I'm now fairly sure that all the daughters died in childhood (and we should be able to get certs to prove that).
The only problem is how to find out whether this photographer can have been at the address on the card mount in 1892 or, if not, how we have a photo apparently taken in 1892-3 but on a mount with an address that did not exist until later.
If the photographer was at that address in 1893 and still there or family still there in 1911 then he or she should appear on the 1901 census at the same address and then we would have to seek out directories for the years just before that to try and find a mention of it for confirmation.
I can imagine all sorts of reasons why one would go back and ask the photographer to make another copy later but, if we are really talking about at least ten years later, it seems odd to reprint a mourning photo on a "mourning card" mount rather than on a standard mount.
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Just wanted to pop in and agree with Jim's assessment of 1880s/very early 1890s. No later than that. I don't think it's a reprint - the style of card is concurrent with the date the photo was taken. Black mounts were 'standard issue' at various times, including the late 1870s-late 1880s.
Can't find anything about the photographer I'm afraid, but I have to admit I didn't have a really good dig around :-[ :)
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Thanks Prue,
I think that maintrain will be in Dublin again before me so perhaps I'll leave it up to him to solve this particular riddle.
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Thanks Prue,
I think that maintrain will be in Dublin again before me so perhaps I'll leave it up to him to solve this particular riddle.
Hi maintrain,
If this lady is Irish you have my sympathy, my Irish relis are still eluding me too.
You at least have this lovely picture, so that gives you something to go on.
Rabbit B ;D
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Hi
Photo wasn't firmly attached to the mount so I managed to seperate them ( i used to do a lot of photo printing so got used to this when I got things wrong)
Unfortunately there wasn't a date on the back which I thought there might have been if it was a reprint. No clues from a makers name on the print paper either.
There are however some markings on the back. - Looks like an imprint of lined paper with some odd words written in longhand but as a mirror image Difficult to read but if they look interesting I'll post them later when I've managed to decypher them.
Thanks for all the help so far.
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Photo wasn't firmly attached to the mount so I managed to seperate them
Don't let Prue see this,she'll have kittens ;D
These things rarely had dates on them and agree with Prue I don't think it's a reprint either.
jim
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MEOW! :o :o :o ;D ;D ;D
Maintrain, now you're going to have to stick the photo back on - albumen prints were stuck to heavy card because they were printed on thin paper that curls up if not stuck down! Also the albumen becomes quite dessicated over the years so it's likely you have exacerbated the process of it cracking microscopically and deteriorating faster. Tsk tsk! ;) ;D
As Jim says, the photos themselves were very rarely, if ever, written on. Usually if there's any info it will be on the mount. And it's not a reprint - it was taken and mounted in the 1880s/90s :)
I don't think there's much point trying to confirm the photographer and his dates/addresses...the dating evidence is quite clear from the photo itself. Many photographers went unrecorded in the directories and listings made at the time and later, and many directories and listings made at the time don't survive now. There could be a number of reasons for not finding a C Mooney practising in the 1880s/90s at that address but your evidence - i.e. your photo and its mount - says that there was definitely one!
Cheers
Prue