Hmm…since the girl is labeled concretely as 17 in the younger photos, that might help narrow down a PROBABLE time frame a little bit. Keep in mind, this is just guesswork and not to be taken as anything but guesswork.
The very large mutton sleeves seen in all four of these photographs cropped up in about 1894/1895 and fell very quickly out of fashion after 1900. Now, let’s say about three years have passed between the two sets of photos (I’m saying this because I’d guess your girl is about 20 in the second set of photos, feel free to adjust the following numbers as you see fit if you believe she is older or younger to find your own results). With an approximate three year gap within the original seven year timeframe, that leaves only about an approximate three year buffer on either end of the original timeframe for each photos if we assume she is 20 in the headshots. The earlier photos would have been taken most likely between 1894 and 1896 to comply with the assumptions above. In that case: 1894-17 is 1877 and 1896-17 is 1879. Similarly, the hypothetical buffer for the headshots would be something like 1897 to 1900. If we assume she’s about twenty: 1900-20 is 1880 and 1897-20 is 1877. So, in short, I would say she was most likely born around 1877-1880.
Again, this is a lot of assuming – too much for me to be comfortably in narrow down my original estimate of 1877-1885 any more than that for sure - but it’s food for thought.
Any yes, as Redroger mentioned, if you happen to have the opportunity to scan the back of these CDVs, sometimes there are clues there as well that can help narrow down a time frame more positively in the design, logo, or photographer's name.
