Gilding the Lily - More hand colouring of carte de visite portraits

Carte de visite portrait of Emily Stuart of Brisbane
Unidentified photographer, c. late 1860s/early 1870s
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
This example of a hand coloured carte de visite portrait, probably taken in the late 1860s or early 1870s, is typical of the embellished photographs produced in great numbers during the first two decades of popular studio portraiture, the era almost completely dominated by the carte de visite. The studio furnishings, with an elaborately painted backdrop suggesting the supposedly modern idea of "indoor-outdoor flow," an ornate-backed chair and a patterned carpet, are typical for the 1860s or 1870s.



Ladies Spring and Summer Wrappings, 15 May 1869
Image courtesy of Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazaar 1867-1898 by Stella Blum
The young woman pictured, who looks to me to be in her early to mid-20s, is dressed for a walk complete with umbrella, decorated hat and fashionable clothing of similar styles to those which appeared in Harper's Bazaar as "Ladies Spring and Summer Wrappings" in May 1869.


In an attempt to restore some vibrancy to the sepia reproduction of what was obviously a stunning outfit on a similarly attractive young woman, the photographer - or an "artistic" assistant - has concentrated mostly on her accessories. Her large pendant earrings and the brooch at her neck have been painted bright yellow - presumably to signify gold - while the flowers and leaves decorating her hat have been transformed with additions of purple and green. The trim on her skirt has been coloured blue, rather inexpertly (not visible in this close-up), and he or she has taken the liberty of adding a little blush to her lips and cheeks.

Although the colours may appear somewhat garish now, this effect has partly been caused by a deterioration of the photosensitive emulsions over time, resulting in fading, and enhanced contrast with the added colours. As an aside, the fact that her is partly let down at the back, some falling onto her shoulders, suggests to me a slightly earlier age, so perhaps she is in her late teens.


A final "enhancement" only becomes apparent when the image is enlarged further. The eyes have also been retouched, with a slight asymmetry to the additions giving the game away. It was common practice in many early portraits, and I will discuss this further in my next post.

Many thanks to Diana Burns, to whom I am indebted for both the scan of the cdv and the title suggestion.

Picnics and beach gatherings, c.1910-1915

Nigel Aspdin sent me scans of a few amateur snapshots from the album of his great-uncle Charles "Charlie" Sydney Smith (1890-1918) which fit nicely into the series of beach photographs that I've featured over the last couple of months. Nigel is not sure exactly when the photographs were taken, but believes from several of the other photos in the album that it must have been shortly before Charlie left for France and the Great War. This narrows it down to the period approximately c. 1910-1915.


Charlie Smith, Trix Slater and friends
Amateur print mounted in album, 74.5 x 57.5 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
The first image shows a group of four friends having a picnic. Wearing pin-striped suits and bow-ties, they're not dressed in the manner we might attend such an informal function, but it was probably appropriate for the time and the class of society to which they belonged. They are sitting or lying on a tartan picnic blanket in the dappled shade of a tree, adjacent to a wooden shed or high fence. They have been drinking tea (perhaps whisky too) and there appears to be a large, half-eaten fruit cake. There are six teacups visible around the blanket, so there was probably another couple present, one of whom took the photograph.

Charlie Smith is on the right, with a post-prandial cigarette between the fingers of his left hand, and seated to his immediate right is his fiancée Beatrice "Trix" Slater (1889-1937). The other couple are unidentified (as are most of the people in the remaining photographs in this selection). He has a cigarette dangling from his lips; she is holding one in her left hand, either on behalf of the photographer or perhaps guiltily as if she should not be smoking. They were obviously friends of Charlie and Trix, but there are unfortunately no annotations in the album to identify either the locations or the participants.


Roadside gathering, Trix Slater and friends
Amateur print mounted in album, 93.5 x 52.5 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
This photo, located on the same page as and immediately below the previous one in the album, shows Trix Slater (at far left) with two couples and a dog, but they are different people from those seen at the picnic. They are lying down in the grass, on what appears to be a road verge, facing the photographer. I assume that Charlie was taking the photograph, and it seems likely that he took most of the photographs in the album. Although the friends are not identified - and Nigel is on holiday at the moment, so he can't confirm it immediately - I believe that the young man on the right hand side is Nigel's grandfather Bertie Dyche Aspdin (1871-1943) and next to him is Trix's sister Evelyn Amelia Slater (1887-1967). Bertie and Evelyn were married in mid-1914, so whether they were husband and wife at this time depends on when the photograph was taken.


Detail of roadside gathering, probably Evelyn Amelia Aspdin née Slater
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
Conversely, one might interpret the ring that Evelyn is wearing, and displaying prominently, on her left hand as indicating they were already married, although it could well be an engagement ring rather than a wedding band.


Group at the seaside, leaning on balustrade
Amateur print mounted in album, 102.5 x 78 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
The next two shots show groups of men, women and boys at the seaside, preparing to go for a swim. Beatrice is sitting in the middle of the front row. They are dressed in raincoats, what look like bath gowns and a wide variety of headgear, which seem rather bizarre by today's standards, but was presumably dictated by the rules of decorum prevalent at the time, in order to preserve their modesty before they actually entered the water.


Large group of fourteen at the beach
Amateur print mounted in album, 98 x 70 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
In the second of these two photos a different, much larger jovial group, including two young lads, is standing on the ripple-marked beach itself. Check out the placement of hands! I won't name the reader who sent me the comment, "My father told me never to miss an opportunity."


Preparing to enter the water
Amateur print mounted in album, 82.5 x 71.0 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
Then a sequence of three photos show two of the young ladies from the large group (standing at 4th from left and at far right, respectively) disrobing and entering the water.


"No excuses, we can't put it off any longer"
Amateur print mounted in album, 74.0 x 75.5 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
After removal of their outer wrappings the two women head to join three of the men who are at the water's edge already.


"Come on in, although I can't promise the water's warm"
Amateur print mounted in album, 57.0 x 51.5 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
They're putting on brave faces, but I doubt the water's very warm.


Testing the water
Amateur print mounted in album, 97.0 x 72.5 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
The last in the series is possibly on a completely separate outing to a stony, rather than sandy, beach. Three fully dressed women have taken their shoes off - although not their magnificent hats - and are testing out the water, while a man with a camera stands beyond them, ankle-deep in the water, preparing to take a shot with his camera.


Detail of previous photograph
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
Unfortunately the photo is not quite detailed enough for me to be able to identify the type of camera, although it looks to be some kind of box-type, perhaps similar to one of the Kodak Brownie range.

The latest 1897 Paris fashions in Walsall

I have read of people identifying jewellery in old family photographs as being heirlooms which they themselves subsequently inherited, and in a previous article I posted a photograph of an unidentified family member wearing some jewellery. My own knowledge about jewellery is almost non-existent but the brooch being worn by the young woman in this photo is one from which even I can derive some information immediately. It is thus an appropriate entry for the footnoteMaven's 16th Smile for the Camera Carnival, Bling Ancestor.
Rachel Elizabeth Benfield (1880-1956)
Carte de visite portrait by F.T. Webb, 4 South Street, Walsall
Image © and collection of Barbara Ellison An inscription on the reverse of the cabinet card portrait identifies the subject as, "Rachel Benfield married Fred Payne." This was Rachel Elizabeth Benfield (1880-1956) who married my great-grandfather's younger brother Fred Payne (1879-1946) at the Trinity Wesleyan Church in Corporation Street, Walsall on 22 May 1901. I have written previously about Fred here and here. The writing is in the hand of my aunt - she knew her great-aunt Rachel, and I have no cause to doubt her identification. Rachel, or Ray as she was known to our branch of the family, was born on 2 June 1880 in Walsall, one of eleven children (eight boys and three girls) of blacksmith Joseph Benfield (1855-1900) and Phoebe Kendrick (1854-1951). Confirmation of my aunt's identification is provided, however, in the form of the brooch that she is wearing at her neck. An enlargement (click on image above) clearly shows that it is in the shape of the name "Rachel." There aren't any other close family members that I'm aware of with this name, so it has to be her. She also has a corsage with what appears to be a large white rose bud, and another dangly thing at the left which I can't quite make out.
Detail of Paris Reception Gown
In Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazaar 1867-1898, 25 December 1897
Image © and courtesy of Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazaar 1867-1898 by Stella Blum I'm also interested in the style of dress that she is wearing. It seems very elaborate with a lot of detailed embroidery on the large collar and sleeves. I found an engraving dated 1897 of a gown with a very similar squarish wide collar in Stella Blum's very useful Victorian Fashions & Costumes. The caption to that illustration contains the following details of the construction of the garment:

The distinctive part of the gown is a collar which is cut out in front and back like a square neck dress ... point-lace, which is appliqued onto the velvet, and is bordered by a band of sable fur.

1901 Census: Benfield family in Walsall Image © The National Archives and courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk On census night (Sunday 31 March) 1901 Rachel was living with her family at 33 Camden Street, Walsall. She described herself as a dressmaker, and her younger sister Florence was a milliner. Kristina Harris, in the introduction to her 1999 book Authentic Victorian Fashions, writes the following about the "average, middle-class American woman" of the 1890s:

Most ... women brought fashion plates (from one of the many ... fashion magazines available ...) to her dressmaker; the dressmaker customized a chosen outfit according to her skills and her customer's desires ... If there was no dressmaker in town, or if a lady could not afford one, her next best source was a local seamstress - a housewife who took in sewing part time. For many women, one new dress a season was all that could be afforded; some women felt fortunate to be able to have one newdress a year. It was fabric, not labor, that was usually the most expensive factor in creating a new dress.

The fact that Rachel's 1901 census entry reads, "Dress Maker, Own account, At home," indicates that she was self-employed, and probably took in dressmaking jobs as described by Harris. Her sister Florence, on the other hand, was described as a worker and would therefore have been employed in a local milliner's shop. It seems very likely that Rachel made this dress which she is wearing in the Webb portrait. She would have copied or adapted the design from something similar to the engraving from Harper's Weekly shown above, according to her means. For example the lace, would have been very expensive to purchase, would have been replaced with some kind of embroidery or brocade. She looks to be aged between 18 and 21, and I estimate that the portrait was taken in 1900 or 1901, perhaps not long before her marriage, which took place three weeks after the census. The photographer Frederick Thomas Webb was originally a japanner, artist and portrait painter from Wolverhampton, settling in Walsall with his wife Mary Ann née Jones in the late 1880s. By 1901 he had turned his hand to portrait photography, operating a studio from his house at 4 South Street. It is not clear how long he remained in business.
Oriental design on carte de visite tissue protector
by F.T. Webb of Walsall, c.1900-1901
Image © and collection of Barbara Ellison The carte de visite has a rather nice preserved tissue protector with an oriental design that I've not seen before. References Copy of Marriage Certificate for F. Payne & R.E. Benfield, Collection of Brett Payne Blum, Stella (ed.) (1974) Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazaar, 1867-1898. Dover Publications, New York. 294p. ISBN 0486229904. Harris, Kristina (ed.) (1999) Authentic Victorian Fashion Patterns, A Complete Lady's Wardrobe. Dover Publications, New York. 136p. ISBN 0486407217. 1841-1901 UK Census indexed images from The National Archives and Ancestry.co.uk

Furs from Canada?

A couple of months ago, I featured this portrait of my gg-grandmother Eliza Sheales Miller née Newman (1844-1919) in an article about the Millers of Weston Underwood. She is adorned with furs which, according to my cousin Lynne Tedder from St John, Alberta, Canada, were sent back from Saskatchewan by her emigrant sons, Frederick Newman Miller (1885-1958) and Bertram Archibald Miller (1886-1979).


The other day, while browsing some scans of unidentified photographs from my own family collection, I came across the image shown above, was reminded of the Miller-Canadian furs connection, and wondered whether the furs being worn by this younger woman might also have emanated from the Miller branch in Canada.

When I scanned it, about ten years ago, I wasn't genealogically or historically savvy enough to either scan the full extent of the card mount or to make notes as to the photographer and/or location. Nor do I currently have access to the original photograph from which this image was scanned, so I can't even be sure of the size, although I believe from the dimensions that it was probably a carte de visite. As a very rough estimate, height/width ratios of the photographic prints on cabinets cards (not the card mounts themselves!) are around 1.38-1.45, while those for cartes de visite are usually a little higher at 1.52-1.64.


The woman has posed in a studio setting, with a backdrop depicting a rural scene, two pillars, presumably made of plaster (and, I might add, rather battered in appearance and not very well placed), and a rather poorly disguised carpet edge. From her clothes I estimate that it was probably taken in the early 1900s, and she appears to be in her mid- to late thirties or early forties.

I haven't been able to identify this woman in any other family photographs, so it is something of a mystery as to who she might be. If I am correct in my estimation of the date of the photograph and her age, then she was possibly born in the 1860s or early 1870s. John and ELiza Miller's children were born between 1870 and 1888, the oldest four being the daughters Minnie Daykin (1870-1956), Edith Brown (1872-1956) (my great-grandmother), Florrie Buxton (1874-?) and Gertie Shimmin (1876-1941). I have photographs of both Edith Brown and Gertie Shimmin, and don't believe this woman could be either of them. It is also possible that it may be one of John & Eliza's daughters-in-law, although I think this less likely. Wilfred Miller was born in 1878 and married in 1904; presumably his wife Eliza was of a similar age. The other sons were even younger.

Fortunately, I am in touch with grand-daughters of both Minnie Daykin and Florrie Buxton, and so my next step will be to send copies of the photograph to them, and see if they are able to help with the identification.


One other potential clue is the jewellery worn by the woman. Although it is not very clear in the original scan, I have tried to enhance the relevant portion in the scan above, revealing what appear to be a star-shaped brooch at her neck, and possibly a pendant locket, hanging on a fairly thick chain. It is possible that this jewellery has survives, and may be recognised by some family member.