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Why Not Then

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Why Not Then

Tag Archives: 1850s

Images- Unidentified Necklace

22 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by Stormi Souter-Brown in 1850s, 19th century, Images

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1850s, 19th century, images

Today I am sharing an image I have long since pondered about, but the subject remains outside my area of expertise.

The image is a cased tintype, 1/4 plate, in a leather case. The image is absolutely perfectly clear, but there is a significant amount of lint trapped between the glass, giving us the red flakes in my images.

Our sitter wears a dress of about 1856- She has a fantastic large medallion print on the dress, which features pagoda sleeves and sleeve jockeys. The bodice appears to be fitted with reveres. She wears black mitts. For all intents and purposes, there is nothing out of the ordinary about her clothing selection.

DSC_4027

However, when we look at her neck, I find a necklace or other adornment that I just cannot place. It appears to be a metal bar with circles on each end, attached to ribbons or other fabric that ties on to her neck.  It does not fit in with traditional jewelry that was popular in this era.

DSC_4027 (2)

Now, I have posed this accessory to the facebook community, and have a few working theories, but no documentation for any of it as of yet.

-Example of Native American jewelry

-Example of South American jewelry

-Medical devise for goiters

-Locally made jewelry, or very isolated fashion trend

Anyone know what is actually is?

We also have some unknowns about the young lady- for instance, her age. She could easily be in the teenage set, which would make having her hair in braids (which is an assumption based on the image, and not necessarily what is going on back there). If she is an adult, and if her hair is in braids, it becomes an odd hair choice.

Also, her earrings are unknown. Drop earrings are dirt common mid-century, but are these standard earrings, or do they match the necklace? It can’t be told from the image.  If it weren’t for the necklace, I wouldn’t be giving a second look at her hair and earrings- I am just trying to make the necklace make sense!

Images- Faded Steroview

20 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Stormi Souter-Brown in Uncategorized

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1850s, Damaged Artifacts, images

Dear readers, you will now learn a secret of mine. I will, and do, collect artifacts without value. I am a rescuer. I have many items I have grabbed out of the mud at auctions (including one of my favorite bakelite bangles!), out of the garbage at estate sales (hello, 1940s scrapbooks), out of discarded piles at thrift stores and flea markets. I am not ashamed. They need rescuing.

Today’s image is one of several that I have rescued. It had been tossed aside as trash, for being too faded for sale! While it’s true, you may have a hard time selling this image of circa. 1855 evening party attendees, it’s still worth a little spot in one of my boxes.

Stereoview2I have tried to bring out the details that were once in this image a little bit better, but I will fully admit that I am not a wiz at editing images!

Stereoview2 (2)

Images- V-neck Ambrotype

15 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by Stormi Souter-Brown in 1850s, 19th century, Images

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1850s, 19th century, images

I would like to start today by letting all my readers know, that getting clear images of Ambrotypes and Daugerrotypes is hard. Real hard. So hard, there will be an entire post on that shortly.

vneck1

But, here it is, the first cased image I am uploading. She is a quarter-plate ambrotype, in a leather case. Now, in reality, she is rather clear, and you don’t see that dust over her, but I haven’t quite managed to capture her clarity.

She is dressed nicely for the mid-late 1850s. Her dress has a v-neck and pagoda sleeves. Her waistline is straight across, and her bodice is either darted or pleated to fit. Her print is  a lovely late 50s large floral, which is trimmed around the neck edge, jockey, and sleeve opening with velvet ribbon. She wears undersleeves, and an open-work tucker around her neck edge.

She has a tinted square broach at the center front of her neck, and it appears she is wearing either earrings, or dangly hair pins.

Many cased images do not offer insight into the sitter, or the photographer, as is the case with this image. I do not know who she is, or even what country she came from, let alone what part of the country. Her dress style is typical for about 1857-1860, with nothing to point to a localized fashion.

However, I find cased images a bit more intimate. Here she sits in her little book as she has for the 150 years, sometimes opened and viewed upon. How different I am of a viewer, studying her through a historian’s lense, then the first viewer who opened her latch was though!

vneckcase2

I spent zero effort taking pictures of her case, but here it is!

vneckcase

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