Lost and Found: Victorian Cabinet Cards

LOST & FOUND: VICTORIAN CABINET CARDS

Recently I came across these old photographs in a house clearance shop in London's Kentish Town. 

It was only after carrying out some research I realised that they had come from different parts of the world, at a time when short distances seemed a lot further away. I began to imagine stories of relatives or loved ones who lived abroad  and sent these mementos home along with long letters to those that they may never have seen again.

Victorian Cabinet Cards were all the rage in the 1860s and 70s. The cabinet card was larger than the Carte de Visite or calling card which had been in use since 1859. The name Cabinet Card comes from where it could be displayed; taking pride of place in the home. By the beginning of the 20th century sales had declined as the public began to prefer the more candid style of the snap shot which could be captured by the new and affordable Kodak Box Brownie and displayed in an album. The last cabinet cards were produced in the 1920s.

This card (above left), a picture of a teenage girl, was produced in the 1890s by a Thomas Horsfell Midwood. The photograph was taken in Midwood's  studio in Ramsey, on the Isle of Man. I liked the embossed border, her side pose and lovely profile.

 

Cabinet Card Studio, North Folgate Street, Sptialfields, London 1905

'Charlie'

This handsome portrait was most probably taken in Queensland, Australia by J.H Hansen Lundager, it is wonderful that many of the backs of these cards (see below) contained the explicit details of their maker as this was a golden opportunity for some free advertising,  which would inevitably lead to more commissions (this also helps give date and provenance to each card). I liked the subject's eyes, his distant romantic gaze and splendid center parting! 

Someone has penciled the name 'Charlie' on the back so I'm guessing that's what he was known as. My grandmother had the same habit, coming from a large catholic family it was a necessity; otherwise the pictures and memories lost their meanings. The black mount and oval shaped frame dates it to between 1884 and 1891. I wonder what the story was behind this one, how Charlie ended up on the other side of the world, where many petty criminals were disposed of and what his connections were here.

This young lady (below) had her portrait taken more locally in Leytonstone, East London, by a John Hart "The Universal Provider of High Class Photographs" in his "Victorian Cabinet Studios". It can be dated to between 1889 and 1891 since the photographer died in 1891, two years after moving his studio there from Finsbury. You can see how studio portraiture used props like furniture and backdrops in an attempt to create a more natural look.

House clearance shops are a great way of finding a bargain, I bought these cards for £1 each and you can find them on eBay for £3 and more. However, I always think there is a certain melancholy hanging in the air, possessions from houses that were cleared of their contents as nobody was left to remember these faces, there are whole family albums of infants in Christening robes and sepia holiday snaps of nameless subjects in their prime of life.