Just a date please - I think too bad to restore!

[miagre1]

Hi Jaylay,

Best regards George

[Tephra]

Hi Jaylay

For some reason, they have a faint American look about them.  Don't know why, it was just the impression I had when I first saw the photo.


Barbara

[rancegal]

The man second from left looks very like pictures of Charles Dickens in early middle age, so I would put it about then, as the others' clothes look right for that period.

[jaylay]

Thank you all for your gorgeous 'fixes' and comments - the four men are Irish, I think the photo may have been taken in Wexford or Kerry, but definitely Ireland.  I think the man second from left is William Huggard, who was a Customs & Excise Officer and therefore moved around a lot - his five children were all born in different counties.  The man at the far left is Martin Huggard, my great grandfather, who qualified as a solicitor in 1865 (hence my feeling that this photo was maybe to celebrate that?) William's son, the other two are Williams other two sons, William (the boy in the photo) and George.  So William's two daughters and his wife were not included in the photo.  Prue, do you have any thoughts on why the background would have been removed?  I recall seeing the original photo and it was the same.

Thanks again everyone - you're all brilliant!
Jaylay

[PrueM]

Prue, do you have any thoughts on why the background would have been removed?  I recall seeing the original photo and it was the same.

Hi Jaylay,

I don't know, it just looks that way to me.  So sad that the original is lost    It  might just be the poor quality of the reproduction, but if you look at the two figures at right, the edges just look "cut out", but there isn't alot of definition there so it might just be my imagination!  I have seen it done though - either the background is tampered with/enhanced/obliterated on the negative, prior to printing; or alternatively after printing someone decides to cut the family out and stick them on another background. 

Even in the 1860s you would expect to have something in the background, even if only a painted backdrop  of a curtain, or some awful wallpaper    Anyway, the cutout aspect is not important to the dating process - the pose, the clothes and the hairstyles are very much of the 1860s 

Cheers
Prue

[Eamonn79]

\\i can see a family resemblance to my ancestor john huggard , buried in ballyseedy graveyard tralee , would you by any chance be related to a thomas huggard , quaster master of the kerry militia , died in 1832 ?