Friday 27 July 2012

Sepia Saturday 136: A Sporting Interlude

Sepia Saturday 136

If the image prompt is anything to go by Sepia Saturday will be packed full of sporty antics this week. Not being much of a cricket or baseball player, or follower, I was contemplating that I might have to resort to including several quotes from my dusty copy of The British Academy of Cricket Manual for Gentlemen and Players. However, I came across a couple of postcard images which just fit the bill, and can therefore be a theme-follower as usual.

Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Unidentified group of hockey players, undated
Black and white postcard by W.W. Winter of Derby

This postcard-sized photograph is a silver gelatin print, with that characteristic partly reflective surface that does not scan well. It shows a group of 32 men and women, actually 15 males and 17 females. They appear to be members of a men's and a women's hockey team - nine of the men wear distinctive uniforms - with a few extras in suits who are possibly team coaches, managers, etc. I can only count nine hockey sticks, but presumably the rest are lying on the grass somewhere.

Image © and collection of Brett Payne

The reverse of the postcard is no help in dating whatsoever, as it is completely generic, with no printed words at all. The only clue to where it is from is W.W.Winter's usual signature blind stamp in the lower right hand corner (left on this image of the reverse).

Image © and collection of Brett Payne

The brow band, sported by one young slightly disheveled woman seated at far right, and really not much more than a ribbon, first appeared immediately after the end of the Great War and remained a distinctive feature of post-War fashion until about 1924. Many of the women in this image have hair styles similar to those described by Geoff Caulton on his British Photodetective web pages as the Great War Look. The white blouses and plain skirts worn by the women also fit that era.

It seems likely to me, therefore that this group portrait was taken shortly after the War, say between 1918 and 1922. Many of the young men pictured would not have been long back from the trenches, and such leisure time activities no doubt provided welcome distractions from the horrors of what they had experienced.


Unidentified group of female hockey players, undated
Black and white postcard by W.W. Winter of Derby

A second postcard depicting a group of 13 hockey players, this time all young women, is on postcard stock that is a variant of a a style that I have classified as Type B in my study of W.W. Winter's Derby studio, used in the 1910s and 1920s.


Reverse of Type B (variant) postcard by W.W. Winter of Derby

The fact that it has Winter's name printed on the reverse, and has no blind stamp, makes me think that it is earlier rather than later, and possibly before he sold the studio to W.H. King and H.B. Sheppard in 1910. The negative number (126214B), written in black pen on the negative and therefore appearing white on the print, by comparison with others from this studio, suggests to me that the group portrait was taken somewhat earlier than the previous one, say between 1905 and 1910.


Low pompadour, Side-swirl and Transitional hair styles

The hair styles and clothing, too, are more typical of the pre-War era. Geoff Caulton again has some good photos of the "low pompadour," "side swirl" and "transitional" hair styles which were popular amongst young women between 1905 and 1915, and examples of all three types are sported by the members of this fashionable hockey team.


Unfortunately the image is not quite clear enough to make out the letters on the uniform badge, although I can vaguely make out a possible T, D and C - perhaps it is something like Trent & Derwent (Hockey) Club? According to Wikipedia, the Derwent Hockey Club, established in 1897, was the oldest hockey club in Derbyshire.

15 comments:

  1. As always you elevate old photographic research into a detective thriller. If you don't mind me saying so, you are the Hercule Poirot of photo-sleuthing

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  2. As Alan said, you're the Poirot, but you're also the Tim Gunn of women's hockey, apparently. I really enjoyed studying the hairstyles and clothing of your athletes this week.

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  3. What a difference colour would have made to that first picture; it woul have been much easier to have identified the team from their quartered shirts.

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  4. Looking at the old photos I am reminded they were considered good for the time. Just imagine how ours with look and appear to others 50 or so years from now. You are the Photo Detective for sure.
    QMM

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  5. Enjoyed the photos and your thoughts on them. And thanks for introducing me to the website you linked to (which I can't remember the name of and can't see while I am typing a comment!).

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  6. You must have been doing this for years ... you know so much. I learn in every post about how to look for clues. I enjoyed the postcard photos that you chose for today's post.

    Thank you,

    Kathy M.

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  7. I don't know how you do it Brett. You take a simple sporting theme and turn it into a major piece of detective work. As well as that we get a lesson in fashion thrown in!

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  8. I can only imagine they were quite an enjoyable team to watch play hockey! Great photos!

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  9. I wonder why some of the women wore what appears to be something like a bow tie, at least one other had a "normal" tie and others none at all.

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  10. If ever a mystery comes my way, I want you to be on my side Brett! You are quite a detective for sure!!

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  11. I loved the "jolly hockey sticks" photo. It took me back to the old fashioned school stories that I read asa child.

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  12. A fine analysis on a difficult topic: men and women with sticks. The first photo's mix of both sexes seems modern, as I would not expect that in similar photos before WW1. And thanks for the link to the fashion history site too. I know I will be consulting it often.

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  13. That photo of the hockey players took me back to my high school days when they made us play field hockey. I enjoyed that about as much as I enjoyed baseball. As soon as possible I took all swimming.

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  14. Your posts are always informative and interesting.
    I loved the different hairstyles too.

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  15. They Look So Quiet & Polite ! But...(from personal experience i know!) Hockey players are devils once the game starts!

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