"Portraits enlarged up to life size" (2)

W.N. Statham of Matlock Bridge also offered a copying and enlargement service, as shown by the wording on the reverse of cabinet card mounts used in the 1890s and early 1900s:


Marilyn and Mike McMillan recently contacted me about images of two photographs - a cabinet card and a cdv - included in my profile of this photographer.

My husband and I were looking at this site and noticed that we can identify the people in two of your unidentified photographs ... The first photograph is of two unidentifed young girls seated in white dresses. The second photo underneath is of an unidentified middle aged couple. He is seated with his arm resting on a table and he has a large beard. His wife is standing.

This middle aged couple are my great grandparents. An enlargement of this photo hangs in my home. They are Henry Statham and his wife Ann Jane (Wass) Statham, both born in 1853. Henry and William Nathan Statham were first cousins. Henry Statham's father, Isaac Statham (m. Sarah Carline), and William N. Statham's father, Abanathan, were brothers. The two young girls in the previous photo are Henry and Ann Jane Statham's daughters - Gertrude (on the left, born April 4, 1882) and Lilian (on the right, born Feb 16, 1886). This family along with two sons, Henry (my grandfather) and Isaac emigrated to Ontario, Canada in 1903.

I am the only child of Walter Statham who was the only child of Henry Statham, the son of the Henry in the picture. So I basically have everything worth saving that belonged to my grandparents. The oval enlargement, and also an oval enlargement of my father's maternal grandparents, Walter and Sarah Barrett, were in a large envelope unframed. These pictures must have come to Canada in the early 1900's. My husband and I had them framed a few years ago so they must have sat in the envelope unframed for most of the 20th century. They were in very good condition.

This is really interesting. Putting pictures on a website like yours proves that it is possible to identify people in photos.

Marilyn kindly sent me some photographs of Henry and Ann Jane Statham later in life, after they had settled in Canada, including these two.


She also provided two images of cartes de visite by the Derby branch of A. & G. Taylor's countrywide chain of studios, showing Gertrude and Lilian Statham, which must have been taken shortly before their departure for Canada in 1903.

"Copies can be had" & "Portraits enlarged up to life size" (1)

One of the most important advantages of the process used in the production of cartes de visite, apart from the relative low cost, was the existence of glass plate negatives. This enabled copies to made very cheaply, and these were offered by most photographers from the early 1860s. John Clark of Matlock Bath offered this typically brief, although informative, text on the reverse of his card mount in the mid-1860s:


W.W. Winter of Derby emphasized that all negatives were preserved, and he expanded the range of services on offer in the mid-1870s, to include enlargement and the finishing of photographs, presumably by retouching artists, in sepia, oil or water colours:


Although the services were probably fairly similar from most of the more established studios, the styles of advertisement varied somewhat. Pollard Graham of Belper & Wirksworth, for example, was brief and to the point in 1881, but soon after dispensed with this form of advertisement completely:


Richard Keene Junior of Burton-upon-Trent additionally offered prints using the "carbon" (presumably carbonotype) process in the 1890s:


Frederick Barber of Matlock finished portraits in "Autotype" (I'm not sure what that was - perhas a reader can help):


Photographers soon realised that those customers with greater disposable incomes could afford, and might easily be persuaded to purchase, enlargements of the photographs. While not quite as simple as ordinary copies, which were produced as simple contact prints from the glass plates, an enlargement was not difficult to make, and could command a considerably higher price. Jacob Schmidt of Belper offered enlargements "up to life size" from the mid-1880s:


J.W. Price of Derby also offered life-size portraits:


I've never come across such a life-size portrait, and wonder how common they were - presumably not very. Have readers information about any such life-size enlargements which have survived? I'd be interested to hear from you.