Is this photograph "faked" Grandma Palmer

[cazza59]

Hi Glen

Happy New Year!

It would be good to see the original, hopefully luck will be on your side and someone will be able to give you a copy.

She certainly was a beautiful woman.

Caz

[Suttonrog]

Zooming in a lot I can see old wear signs and cracks so I dont think it is a new photo.

I stand by my original thoughts that the head is all wrong and been expertly cut and pasted from another photo. The size is wrong, the colouring is wrong and the orientation is wrong. The face also seems to be ina different plane to the hand suposedly supporting it

It is an ideal subject for cut and paste as the neck is hidden by the collar.

Can anyone name the plant - it should be an aspidistra, but isn't.

Sutton Rog

[chinakay]

It's a palm. Maybe a paradise palm, maybe a dwarf coconut palm, but definitely a palm plant. It's fairly Victorian, I think.

I do know that cats love them. I'd say this is a feline-free household
Cheers,
China

[cazza59]

Sutton

I'm intrigued...why should it be an aspidistra?

Caz

PS Agree with China, palm!

[chinakay]

The aspidistra (which my dad always called an "aspidaspra" and to this day I have trouble with the word ) was the epitome of the Victorian parlour houseplant. Also known as a cast-iron plant, it could survive dust, gloom and neglect and was perfect for indoor conditions of the time. George Orwell satirised it as the ubiqiutous choice of middle-class English decorating in his novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying.

Isn't reading RC educational

Cheers,
China

[Tricia_2]

Is it possible that this is a photo of the lady in later years, wearing her old posh frock, and with a photograph of her face, in younger years, held up in front of her???

[Shaztoni]

I think the picture is pretty much original actually, I have a few of my great grandmother where her head looks too big for her body, but her body was squeezed into a tiny dress, and her neck is missing with the high neck line which doesn't help. Plus when you take it back to sepia it looks more like it should with scratches in the corners

The second picture shows my Annie with a larger than natural looking head.

Sharon

[Lydart]

Just found this thread ... fascinating !  I agree the young lady's head looks too big, and the angle isnt natural, and I was worried that the table had lasted for 70 years without any visible aging ..

... but what a wonderful old lady; doesn't she look marvelous at 100 years !  Hope I wear as well !

[Little Nell]

For those still puzzling about the plant - you see them these days labelled a variety of things:

Kentia or sentry palm or Howea forseteriana

It originates from Lord Howe Island in Australia and has been a popular indoor plant since Victorian times.

Gracie Fields sang a song about the biggest aspidistra in the world - lyrics available here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/michaelanthony.keating/Gracie_Fields/Biggest_Aspidistra/biggest_aspidistra.html

(Sorry - probably just lowered the tone of this fascinating thread  )

Nell