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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: weemantam on Friday 14 April 17 18:10 BST (UK)
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Easy one to begin with (sort of) I have a small collection of photos which I am trying to attribute to individuals. This first one is well damaged but I think there is enough of it remaining to have a guess, not to mention the style of processing which may have been used... anyone?
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my try
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bw
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Hi loord74,. thanks for your efforts, I am mostly, however after an estimated date for the photo rather than a repair (though I will keep the repair with thanks!)
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I have done my own repair but the rhs of the face is a bit of a guess.... still looking for assistance on the year though ...?
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There is not enough detail of the clothes for me at least to even hazard
a guess :'(
Jim or Carol maybe along and could do better :)
Joy
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Thanks Joy, I look forward to their opinion :)
I felt that the cracks on the photo were gaps rather than missing portions on the image so I closed up the gaps with the attached result, makes for a slightly less "robust" person.
Whilst its a complete guess, I don't think the woman in the photo is all that old, perhaps in her 40's or 50's. I have been told the person in the photo was an individual born in 1839 which suggests the image is perhaps between 1880 and 1890 though I suspect a smidge earlier.
She is either wearing a dark bonnet which is close to the top of her head and has decorative side 'puffs' or has a a hair style of similar description. I suspect the latter due to the lighting impyling a centre parting on her hair. This, If Ive read correctly seems to have been popular between the 1870's and 1890's. She seems to be wearing a bodice of sorts (suspected by the vertical stripes which can be just made out) and a chevron patterned shawl.
The shawl is the real hindrance here since it covers up much of the indicators of what fashion (if any) the wearer had on display. The bigger probelm, of course, is that there is no real trend to what the wife of a 19th century coal miner and a god fearing presbyterian Fifer may have adorned herself with, even "for special" back then.
I suspect a better clue to the photo date may come from the photo condition itself, with the fairly rare and faded processing technique . This one has the hallmarks of being a Cabinet Card popular between 1875 and 1895 and (though you cant see it in the copy of a copy I have, there does appear to be an artistic underscore. The sepia tone apparently suggests it is the earler of this type of image i.e. in the 1880's.
It's a shame I cant get hold of the woman who gave me this image (it was a few years ago now) since she could undoubtedly tell me more....
Anyway, opinions still welcome :)
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I'm no expert but the half tone type of appearance makes me wonder if this is a copy of a newspaper or some such periodical, photo. We need Jim's input :)
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Well spotted but it's poor quality is by virtue of it being an inket printout I was given years ago. I cant get hold of the original owner of the image to try and procure somethine a bit better, so, unfortunately this is all I have to work with... :(
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Here are a couple of pictures which (again I'm running from memory) are of the same person. One which has pretty good detail on the dress despite the fading (neck brooch, shoulder flappy things etc) and a really conservative hair do. Also, the doorway photo was taken by the Greenfields of Edinburgh. I dont have a date but the earliest possilbe date I have for them being at 5a Annandale Street is 1893 and they stayed there for a good 40 years. This make the subject (if my info regarding the 1839 birth is correct) at least 60 and she looks about 80 in the photo! She lived until 1913 (i.e. 74) so I suspect it was closer to that date. Hopefully this can back track assist the earlier photo..?