Detail of vignette RPPC. Private Collection.
In an effort to look serious this pretty one in a nailhead patterned suit came out a bit broody under the tilted hat! Still a cutie!
This RPPC vignette is on the left half of the card, leaving enough space for messages to the right.
RPPC: PMO. Photo taken between 1907-1915
Teens with style. RPPC. Private Collection.
The young gentleman to the left is wearing a layered look with a cardigan between the waistcoat and coat. You’d think I’d encounter more images of gents wearing those this way, but I don’t. This photo was part of a lot of gents posing. At first sight they all look similar, but I always find something interesting in the details. His friend to the right looks like he survived the measles.
Enlarged detail.
I accidentally posted this one instead of saving it as a draft. You get an extra post today.
RPPC: AZO 1907-1918
Leonard Spiller (1890-1952) Cabinet card. Private Collection.
When I first saw this photograph I thought the boy looked familiar…then I see he’s IDed. Success! What a lovely photograph too, very clean which is always a plus. This cabinet card was taken on June 11,1903 when Leonard Spiller was 13.
And this is the second photograph I have of him, the first a CDV taken in 1910 when he was a student at Cambridge. I learned some more about his family too. Leonard was the son of John Spiller, a consulting analyst chemist and once the President of the Royal Photographic Society (1874-1875) in London.
Leonard came into this world late in the life of his father John (1833-1921) who married Emma (born Davenport), his second wife. Leonard had much older half siblings from his father’s first marriage to Caroline Ada Pritchard: Ethel Mary (1857-?), Arnold John and Claude Pritchard (1870-1938).
I found some photos of his family from the same seller. A photo gallery of Leonard and family members after the cut.
Super tiny photo booth style strip. Dated 1915. Private Collection.
A cute early example of a photobooth style photo strip. Look at this one with the wide engaging smile. And he looks younger with his hat on!
Apart from the subject, what makes this photo strip interesting is that it is dated 1915 on the back in pencil. This means this strip was taken a good eleven years before inventor Anatol Josephewitz (later Josepho) patented his machine and opened the infamous New York based automated Photomaton Studio dubbed “Broadway’s greatest quarter-snatcher”. As many as 7,000 New Yorkers a day stood in line to experience his machine, and by the end of the first year Mr. Josepho had made a swell million dollars (in yesterday’s money!) contracting his machine for expansion Ok, I’m getting sidetracked here..!
I’d like to find out why strips like this one existed before the era of the Photomaton, but info on photo strips taken prior to Josepho’s invention isn’t readily available online. This particular example is very tiny. Each photo is about 1 inch by 1 inch. I think these were proofs for larger versions to be ordered, but the portrait poses look informal, like taken at a photobooth…
Private Collection
1/6th plate of a brunette teen boy sitting cross-legged on a wicker chair. Most likely an American. I read somewhere -alas I can’t remember the source- Europeans (especially the English) liked to keep their suit pants and coat’s color matching. Americans were more adventurous and mix-matched (those crazy yanks!). This seems to be true from what I’ve seen so far.
An interesting bit of info on this collar after the cut.
Bowlers And High Collars 