English Victorian fashion: identifying era from old photo of a fashionable lady

In which decade was this photo taken

  • 1850s

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 1860s

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 1870s

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 1880s

    Votes: 1 100.0%

  • 1890s

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 1900 - 1909

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 1910 - 1999

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    1
LilyS

LilyS

Registered Guest
Hi,

I am new to this forum and hoping someone here can help me with an old family photo. I am trying to identify the era that this photo was taken in. My mother believes it is of her great aunt Ethel (1866 - 1946) as it was hung in Ethel's bedroom. However, I am wondering if it could be of Ethel's mother, my 2nd great grandmother (1835 - 1927) as it would maybe make more sense for Ethel to have had a photo of her mother rather than of herself hanging in her room. The only photo we have of my 2nd great grandmother was taken when she was about 90, so not much to go on from that. This is why dating the photo through the fashion is so important. Thanks in advance. Lily
ethel.jpg
 
Hello,

She is a very beautiful woman. It may be difficult to be specific as to the year, since we can see only her hair and the very top of the collar and shoulder area. Judging just by what I can see, I would place it fashion wise in the 1880s. Can you tell us, what is the size of the photo, width and length? Is there anything written on the back? Is it printed on a thick cardboard type backing? If not, what type pf material is it printed on? The woman looks about 20 years old. So if it were your 2nd great grandmother the photo would have to have been taken in the 1850s and it would be small and printed on metal or glass. The photo you show looks like it was printed on some type of paper.

Is this an original photo or is an enlargement or reprint? These answers will all give clues.

Lovely!
 
Thank you Barbara. The photo is about 6 inches tall (see attached photo of it in its frame) and appears to be printed on thin paper glued onto a card backing. If it was taken mid 1880s, this would put Ethel at 20-years-old as you suggest. I am also attaching a photo of the frame back. It was framed in London. The family were living in a village just south of London, in Surrey (where their paternal grandmother lived) in the 1881 census, but had moved permanently to Devon, southwest England by the 1991 census. We have a dated 1892 photo portrait of one of her younger sisters, Ada, from a Plymouth, Devon photographic studio. Pinpointing the Ethel(?) photo to the late mid 1880s tells us the family were probably still living near London at this date. Do you know if it was "normal" for Victorian/Edwardian ladies to hang photos of themselves in their private rooms? Not, I suppose, taht she had to be "Normal"! They were quite an eccentric family. Lily
front.jpg
back.jpg
 
There's a bit of information online about Arthur Vokins of 23 Baker Street. He is placed at that address by reliable sources, in 1887, and, 1894 - 1985. It's not clear whether he was there earlier, but he may have been.

See: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=120072
http://www.npg.org.uk/research/conservation/directory-of-british-framemakers/v.php
http://www.photolondon.org.uk/pages/details.asp?pid=7233

Of course the photo may be older than the frame.
 
This could have been an important landmark for her. At that age she might have been presented to society (I am not familar with what it was called at this period in time, in the 20thC she would have been a debutante) and had a portrait taken as a momento, much as we do with graduations etc.
 
Thank you for this, i'd not thought to search the frame maker. The third link is vry interesting as it states:

Society of Photo Etchers
Biography
Society of Photo Etchers
Secretary: Arthur Vokins.
STUDIO: 23 Baker Street, St Marylebone 1894 - 1895. Art dealer here from 1896.

As the plate on the back of the frame states "Arthur Vokin, dealer in works of art..." This seems to suggest the photos was framed after 1896. I know this family were based in Devon by then (there is a record of one of the sisters donating a large, jewelled, brass cross to a church in 1894 in the Devon village where they had permanently settled. Could she have taken this photo up to London for framing maybe?
 
This is a good point, Melanie, perhaps that's why she had it framed in her room? Like a graduation certificate? Perhaps the 1892 portrait of her younger sister was a similar commemoration, though that one is much smaller. I'll attach it here

wardada1892.jpg
 
Perhaps it was for her 21st birthday? The singled dated one we have (Plymouth 1892) of Ada fits this theory as Ada was born in 1871 (21 yeras before). Does anyone know if it was traditional in Victorian times to commemorate 21st birthdays with "coming out" photos? Or perhaps it was just a family tradition?

If this is the case then this studio photo of Evie (born 1870) would have been taken in 1881
wardevelyncropped.jpg


And this one, which we THINK is of Carrie (and unfortunately is very overexposed) would have been taken in 1889. Do these dates seem about right?
wardcarriecropped.jpg
 
These two portraits look more Edwardian to me, with the high collars, and Evie's piled up hair - i would have said c. 1910 for Evie - the other one is harder to tell because I can't see the hat and the details are blurred, but the blouse she is wearing looks to be sometime c. 1905 - 1912.
 
OK thanks, Jonathan, and they look over 21 also really, don't they? In their 30s would make sense. It may be from the same era of this (unfortunately not very good quality) photo of three of them: the left hand one is clearly Evie:

wardsistersgoodscan.jpg
wardsistersgoodscan.jpg
 
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