Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: carte de visite

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of adage illustrated (a photo illustrating a common adage—please identify the adage) . The old adage about two heads being better than one turns out to be true when it comes to a photo like this one. This is a nineteenth-century CDV showing two young women with their heads sticking out through the torn pages of a newspaper. And why did they pose like this? They were perpetuating a photographic joke that was popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. They're literally breaking the news or perhaps just looking through the paper . For other examples, see Breaking the News, Lititz Express, July 4, 1907 and Looking through the Newspaper .

Handwritten note on this CDV photo back : "Mr. & Mrs. Tom Thumb." Backmark: "Published by the New York Photographic Co., No. 453 Broadway, New York." For the photo on the front of this CDV, see Mr. and Mrs. Tom Thumb in Their Wedding Attire :

A weddings photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Handwritten caption (barely visible at the bottom of the photo above): "Mr. & Mrs. T. Thumb." Handwritten note on the back of the photo (see below): "Mr. & Mrs. Tom Thumb." Printed on the back of the photo: "Published by the New York Photographic Co., No. 453 Broadway, New York." Other versions of this photo are captioned "Mr. & Mrs. 'General Tom Thumb' in Their Wedding Costumes" (see, for instance, Photo_History's copy, Tom Thumb's Wedding by Brady , on Flickr). As Wikipedia explains, " General Tom Thumb was the stage name of Charles Sherwood Stratton" (1838-1883), a little person who became famous as a performer for circus promoter P. T. Barnum. His marriage to Lavinia Warren (1841-1919), a little person who was a former school teacher, took place on February 10, 1863, and received extensive publicity. Stratton died in 1883, and Lavinia married another little person, Count Primo Magri (1849-1920), in 1885 (see the photo of Count and Countess Magri below). Despite her marriage to Magri, Lavinia continued to make appearances as Mrs. General Tom Thumb (see below for a 1912 theater advertisement and an undated green ticket ). Lavinia died in 1919 and was buried next to her first husband. Magri passed away the following year. After all the publicity generated by Lavinia and Stratton's marriage in 1863, people began referring to the playful mock marriages in which children assume the roles of bride and groom as "Tom Thumb weddings." These events are still held today by churches and other groups for fundraising and entertainment purposes (see below for a photo of a children's mock wedding held in the 1920s ).

I'm trying to imagine what happened at the photo studio that day. Photographer: Well, ladies, I've just received a couple of interesting new props that we can use in your portrait today. There's one here and another one over there. Do you prefer the former or the latter? Ladies: Oh, we'll take the ladder , of course! Otherwise, there are no identifying details that might help to explain the origin of this unique photo.

A close-up of a faceless family foursome on a nineteenth-century CDV. See also the full photo .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of flawed memories (photos that are damaged, faded, or have other imperfections, especially ones in which the flaws somehow enhance the image; this includes photos with defective processing, light leakage, and double exposures) . A spooky CDV with an unidentified faceless family. Perhaps their faces were somewhat washed out in the original photo, but they may also have been intentionally rubbed out afterwards. Take a gander at a cropped version of the CDV for a closer look at the family's faint facial features. For another faceless photo, see Who's the Dummy Now?

A Victorian-era calling card for "Mr. E. H. White" along with his photograph, which looks like it may have been copied from a CDV. Anyone recognize the typeface? For similar cards, see my album of Calling Cards with Photographs .

A Victorian-era chromolithographed card with an added photo (a rectangular portion of the card was cut out of the middle, and the photo--part of a CDV--was affixed to the back). As far as I can determine, "Merry Christmas 1890" is what's stamped at the top.

"The London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company, 54 Cheapside and 110 & 108 Regent Street. Photographers to H.R.H. The Prince of Wales and to H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh. Sole photographers to the International Exhibition, 1862. Berlin, London, Dublin, New York. This negative is preserved for further copies. Enlargements can at any time be produced without another sitting." Reverse of a hand-tinted CDV of British stage actress Clara Rousby:

"Mrs. Rousby. Stereoscopic Co." Clara Rousby (1852?–1879), a British actress who played Joan of Arc and other roles on the London stage, in a hand-tinted CDV by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company (see backmark below).

A CDV photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. "62. Alpenblumen. 62. Nigritella angustifolia. Rhododendron hirsutum. Leontopodium alp. Aster alp." Backmark: "F. Fridrich, K. Pr. Hofphotograph, Verleger, Prag." ["F. Fridrich, Royal Prussian Court Photographer, Publisher, Prague."] This hand-tinted carte de visite of colorful Alpine flowers came from the studio of Czech photographer František Fridrich (1829-1892) (see Fridrich's entry in the Czech Wikipedia). As indicated in the caption, the flowers include black vanilla orchid ( Nigritella angustifolia , now classified as Gymnadenia nigra ), hairy alpenrose ( Rhododendron hirsutum ), edelweiss ( Leontopodium alpinum ), and Alpine aster ( Aster alpinus ).

"J. C. Stodart, Margate." In this CDV, a boy looks somewhat uncomfortable as he perches on a studio version of the top of a sailing ship's mast. I'm not sure why a mast mockup like this was used as a studio prop, but perhaps it was popular in a seaside resort town like Margate , Kent. In any case, similar depictions of boys on masts appeared on advertising trade cards, postcards, and other media in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

"A Merry Christmas, 1906, A. M. Collins Mf'g Co., Mr. Albert Dumer." The A. M. Collins Manufacturing Company was a Philadelphia-based supplier of photographic card folders and mounts. In the nineteenth century, the company was a major U.S. manufacturer of cards for mounting CDVs and cabinet photos.

I thought at first that the doll was sitting on some sort of wheelbarrow, but as lisabee73 points out (see comments below) it's more likely that this is actually a dog cart or baby carriage. Printed on the back of this CDV: "A. Jandorf & Co., Berlin, C. Spittelmarkt 16/17, S.W. Bellealliancestr. 1/2, N.O. Grosse Frankfurterstr. 113. Platten werden zur Nachbestellung aufbewahrt."

"Rehn & Sons' new & commodious ground floor galleries, 510 Arch Street, Philadelphia. Portraits, card, ivorytypes, ambrotypes, photographs, in crayon, pastel, water, and oil." The U.S. Internal Revenue stamp on this CDV backmark dates it to between August 1, 1864, and August 1, 1866. Another Rehn and Sons backmark , which is part of Richard D. Sheaff's amazing collection , has an added border and a handwritten date of March 1866.

"Compliments of A. D. Harding, artistic photographer, 42 Main St., Susquehanna, Penn'a. Satisfaction guaranteed." For a delightful collection of similar cards with photos, see Photo_History's set of Calling Cards, Business Cards, and ID Cards over on Flickr.

The Italian Count Primo Magri married Lavinia Warren , who was the widow of General Tom Thumb , in 1885. . For the back of this photo, see Count and Countess Magri (Back) (below, left). For more information about Lavinia Warren and her first husband, see Mr. and Mrs. Tom Thumb in Their Wedding Attire (below, right).

Handwritten note on this CDV photo back: "Count Primo Magri from Bologna, Italy. Countess." For the photo on the front of this CDV, see Count and Countess Magri :