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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: sheeponahill on Saturday 08 June 24 12:09 BST (UK)
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I am trying to confirm what this writing says. It is from the back of an 1830s picture frame which contained a painting by the man who wrote this text. I think the last two words are "your father", but the rest is less clear. The top left double swirls might be an H? The word middle right looks like "Miss". Many thanks.
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I've made some progress I think although there may be mistakes of course. What do you think please?
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My latest thought is that the last three lines might be -
do not let this
be broken
your father
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I'm a bit surprised that you haven't had any responses on this. For what it's worth, I think you may be right with your suggestion in reply#2, but the rest needs a bit more thought.
Hopefully now I've posted, this will go to the top of recent posts and get some more attention.
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Many thanks arthurk. I'm still very keen to figure it out.
I am fairly settled on the bottom three lines being -
do not let this / be broken / your father
The part I'm struggling with is the first two lines:
Top line, I think the top right word is "Gibson". What might the top left flourish be? One letter or two? An "H" or an "S" maybe, or an "Fl"?
Second line, I can see so much of it, I'm surprised I can't figure it out. There is a middle "sp" which might be an old "ss".
(Obviously the following mark-ups assume that I'm seeing the right letters)
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I'm still not getting very far with this. One of the things that's puzzling me is that the second line isn't straight - or maybe there was an imperfection in the surface so he had to write round it. My best guess for the second line is 'inspector'.
You might be right with Gibson - I can't think of anything better. And I wonder if the first part of the first line is a forename - possibly Frederick (with 'F' represented by 'ff' as used to be the norm). I also considered Isaiah (with long 's'), but I think there are too many letters for that. Or if it begins with 'H', Hezekiah - but that seems even less likely to me.
Do you know anything about the picture's origins, particularly location? And do you think the picture itself might shed any light on the inscription?
(I'm still hoping that someone else might offer an opinion...)
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Hello again and thanks. I'm attaching a photo of the picture itself. It looks like it is probably about 1820 (at a guess?) and it was from a Cumbrian auction house. I have assumed that it is a picture the artist's daughter ("your father"). It is possible that it might be the artist's son or daughter's friend, I suppose.
Regarding the "ff", it is possible that I am mistaken in thinking the two join up as one. It might perhaps be an "fl" but I don't think so. ff=F feels like a good assumption.
The writing does head upwards, perhaps to avoid a bump in the card. There certainly is a bump.
I think we're a letter short for "inspector" - there is either an "e" or a "c" but not both I think.
Best wishes.
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To be honest I couldn't really think how 'inspector' might be relevant.
But now I've seen the picture, I wonder if the first word/name might be Hannah. And might the second line be where she lived?
Others are far better than I am at dating costumes, but is there anything other than the image itself which leads you to around 1820?
(I'm about to close down now, so no more from me for tonight.)
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“Hannah” is interesting. It fits very well I think. Hannah Gibson.
The 1820 guess is simply based on the style of picture. I’ve seen others with a book held similarly from that period. I should probably have said 1800-1850.
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Elsewhere on Rootschat there is a thread looking at a Hannah Gibson of Whitehaven, whose father was called Peter. If the second part of the second line is Peter, might the first be some kind of shorthand for “child of”…?
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=536051.0
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It certainly looks like Peter, and the thread you've found is intriguing, but the first part is still defeating me. As well as your suggestion, I wondered if it might mean something like 'Mrs', with this being the mother of the person being addressed below, but I'm not confident enough in putting an age to the sitter.
If no-one else comes in on this to offer an opinion, I'd be tempted to start another thread titled something like 'Date of portrait & age of sitter', give a link to this one, and invite people to comment here (not in the new thread).
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It's similar from a fashion and style perspective to the following, which is dated to 1849 (Charlotte Bronte's picture of a Mrs Hudson). Your suggestion of starting a separate post to date the image is a good one.
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Thanks Kendra, I’m thinking I’ll do that. And yes I can see the similarities.