I enjoyed spending some time restoring this beautiful portrait. The original has a print defect and is sprinkled with black ink from the process. But fortunately Photoshop corrected these tiny imperfections to reveal this shot’s true beauty. I absolutely love the window and gorgeous rose curtain behind this young man, and the use of lights and dark to create chiaroscuro. And one cannot miss his eyes.
With the belt, collared shirt and thin, straight tie I’d date this portrait from the late 1910s to early ’20s (if so, it was printed on older stock).
RPPC: AZO up triangles, 1904-1918
Bowlers And High Collars 
August 17th, 2016 at 5:57 am
Is it on postcard stock or is it a one-off photo? Sometimes you can date by the card type. Great photo (and restoration.) I do this stuff myself from my own collection of bought (and inherited) photos and cards.
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August 17th, 2016 at 2:27 pm
Hi, it is on postcard stock, an AZO with four up triangles.
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August 17th, 2016 at 3:31 pm
Apparently four triangles pointing up date it to 1904 to 1918. This webpage has a chart. Maybe you can date some of your other cards from it? http://www.playle.com/realphoto
You can probably also date it from the style of his shirt collar and, if you scan the image at a very high resolution and zoom in close you might be able to tell the weave and type of print on the curtains.
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August 17th, 2016 at 3:44 pm
Thank you Val, I use this website as a reference to date my cards (I mention the years in this post).
As for the curtain it’d be interesting to find out the exact fabric and when it was manufactured, but that’s certainly not my area of expertise!
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August 17th, 2016 at 3:47 pm
It’s a studio set up, anyway. The ‘window’ is a painted backdrop the kind of which I see in many British studio photos. Generally the curtain will be painted, too, but there it’s real.
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August 17th, 2016 at 2:05 pm
I thought he looks a little later, 1930’s the 20’s seem more formal but certainly a very nice picture though he looks as if he’s giving a sideways glance to someone
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August 17th, 2016 at 2:29 pm
Nah, not the ’30s. It would have been *very* old card stock and his tie is very 1910s.
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August 18th, 2016 at 1:48 am
That style of tie had a resurgence in the late 60’s, I may still have on in my wardrobe lol
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August 18th, 2016 at 4:36 am
It did! You old stock. ;-D
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