Is this photograph "faked" Grandma Palmer

[Lydart]

No, no ... all information is knowledge, and all knowledge is useful; maybe not today or  tomorrow ... but you never can tell ... it may be just the thing someone wanted to know !!

[PrueM]

Yep definitely a Kentia palm, rivalled the Aspidistra as Most Popular Houseplant of the Nineteenth Century   

I like Tricia-2's suggestion:
 

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???

It does look as though she's holding up a mask, now that I look closely at her right hand and the face.  Could this be the solution to the mystery?  Where's Poirot when you need him!   

Prue

[heywood]

I do hope that this mystery gets solved - I have to say that looking at it last night - well 1.00am in the morning it was a bit scary! I am still uncomfortable with it somehow but for the reasons that everyone has already mentioned,

Why didn't she move the chair instead of sitting in that strained position?
The hands seem older as people say - and it does look as though she is holding a mask- will h ave to look at her right hand again to see if she is holding something.
But there is some sort of a crack/split running down at the top left which makes you think it is an older photo.
Please find out soon.
best wishes to all
heywood

[cazza59]

Thanks for the information on the plant.  Being in Australia, I have a few in the garden!  Can't say rootshat isn't educational! 

Sharon, I think what makes your photo natural is the glimpse of neck, which is missing from the mystery photo and gives the appearance that the head is just sitting on the shoulders.

Caz

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

I'm glad you all like this little mystery. Not bad for my first thread 

Anyway, just  as a complete out of the blue idea, i wonder if in the "dark ages" of pre digital days this photograph may have been created in a darkroom? It is possible to create a photograph using parts from different images (though the early photographs would be glass plate and not negatives).
 It would be the forerunner to the copy and paste technique mentioned earlier in the thread.

It is also possible to expose different parts of the image for different times (therefore over or underexposing any part(s) of the image and making them appear lighter/darker as required).

Of course only the person who did the original work would know what had been done, and the same applies if it has been manipulated in modern times on a computer.

Glen

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

Just an update about this mystery, the person who supplied the picture can shed no new lihjt on it. The mystery still runs and i doubt i will ever get an answer.

Thanks to all for your replies and help.



Glen

[buff]

The hands look older than the face.

[elaine447]

has anyone noticed when you enlarge the picture
the table in the first picture
looks as though it has two little faces embedded in it
but when you look at the table in the picture of that beautiful
old lady the table looks different
Elaine

[chinakay]

Yeah. And I'm wondering why the chains around her neck in the first picture aren't hanging straight down, but are kind of at the same angle as her body is leaning.

Cheers,
China