A young girl with a doll, by R. & R. Bull of Ashbourne

The indefatigable Cynthia Maddock also sent me these scans of another postcard portrait, which are of her friend's mother as a child, holding a doll.


She was Harriet Elizabeth Barker, born at Snelston near Ashbourne on 23rd November 1908. Her parents were Robert and Ellen Elizabeth Barker. She earned her living in domestic service in Derby until her marriage. In later life she lived in Loughborough and died in 1998 aged 89 years. If she was between three and four years old when she visited the studio for this portrait, it was probably taken in 1912.


The portrait was taken by the firm of Robert Bull and his nephew, another Robert Bull, trading as R. & R. Bull of Ashbourne. The "A half-penny stamp for inland one penny foreign" postage rate specified in the stamp box was standard in the United Kingdom until 1918 (Source: Peter Stubbs' EdinPhotos Post Card History).