Dating: Graslitz / Kraslice, CZ: Photo Series: Possibly 1850

[Copernicus]

Hello, I'm new here, so I hope I am following the rules correctly.  Please tell me if I'm not.

So, recently on a site with a number of photos on it, including my family's "home city", which is a small mountain village called Graslitz (modern Czech name: Kraslice) in the Czech Republic, 5km from the border of Saxony, a number of very old photos were posted with no identification at all, barring one which an old article pointed them to being from 1850, when the city commissioned a series of photos of itself (if my German was right). 

I've been able to confirm they are, in fact from the same city, and am pretty sure the date is correct based on clothing and the fact that they resemble calotypes, which did exist at the time, but I was hoping I can get confirmation from the experts here.

Note: If you go back far enough, I'm related to most families in the city, so I'm fairly certain at least some of the people in the photos are relatives of mine, one way or another.

Here they are:

[chinakay]

Wow. Hi Copernicus, and welcome to the Photo board...

Tough bunch to date, by us anyway, because the good townsfolk are wearing traditional dress which may not have changed much in 300 years. Also not familiar to most of us here, as 99.9% of the photos we see are from Britain and the colonies.

It might be a bit of help is the photos had been scanned in colour and in their entirety including the outer edges...but again any information about the photographer(s) may not be available to us.

PureM is our best expert on types of photographic processes. If she doesn't check in on this thread, you might PM her and ask her to ave a look. She is a moderator and you can find a link to PM her at the top of the Photo board.

Thanks for sharing these wonderful old photos with us, and we wish you  good luck in your research

Cheers,
China

[PrueM]

Hi Copernicus,

Beautiful photos, did you make sure there was no copyright restriction on them?  I only ask because if there is, I might have to remove them from Rootschat, in which case you could provide a link to the original site instead.

Anyway, sadly the photos have been "black-and-whited" so any colour information that may have been evident, to help with process identification, has been lost.  The calotype is one process that was around in 1850, but it's impossible to tell what these prints are given the low quality of the digitised images.  I would need a lot more detailed visual information in order to give a proper ID to the process, and thus verify the date.  As China says, the clothing is not the typical dress we see in England/US at this date, and may or may not be indicative of a particular period, i.e.. it might be traditional dress that didn't change much until the early 20th century.

Sorry I don't think I can say much more than that at this stage 

Cheers
Prue

[Copernicus]

Ok, I guess I overestimated the what could be done with what I had and breadth (land-wise) of your guys' focus. 

Does anyone know of an equivalent German forum to this?  Maybe I'll have more luck there?

Also, as I alluded to - I've already found books indicating drawings of the clothing was in line with that time period (they did actually change more than you think - that "flat cap" / pageboy type cap didn't exist for centuries, for example), but was just looking for more input on it:





I am 100% certain they are not copyrighted (obviously not the book covers, which I can remove).   I'll come up with the evidence in the morning here, but please don't make the thread useless by immediately deleting everything.

Thanks.

[PrueM]

Ok, I guess I overestimated the what could be done with what I had and breadth (land-wise) of your guys' focus. 

Does anyone know of an equivalent German forum to this?  Maybe I'll have more luck there?

Also, as I alluded to - I've already found books indicating drawings of the clothing was in line with that time period (they did actually change more than you think - that "flat cap" / pageboy type cap didn't exist for centuries, for example), but was just looking for more input on it:
I am 100% certain they are not copyrighted (obviously not the book covers, which I can remove).   I'll come up with the evidence in the morning here, but please don't make the thread useless by immediately deleting everything.

Thanks.

Hi Copernicus,
I was more concerned with photos being taken from another website and posted here if there are copyright rules in place on the other site - if you could confirm that would be great.  Of course I won't "immediately delete everything"!

As we've stated, we're not really au fait with continental fashions on Rootschat because it is a UK/colonial-based forum.  As far as dating of photo processes goes, you will understand that the original appearance of a photo gives 90% of the information we need in order to accurately identify the process and thus narrow down a date.  If a photo has been scanned in black and white rather than colour, and compressed or otherwise digitally enhanced for posting on a website, most of that information is going to be lost and the process is not identifiable.

Berlin-Bob is our expat resident in Germany, he knows of genealogy and related forums in Germany and so it might be worth your while sending him a PM (private message) and asking whether he knows of one that might be able to help you date your photos.

Cheers
Prue