Tag Archives: Norfolk jacket

American Gothic

The American countryside couple. RPPC. Private Collection.

Circa 1910 American couple. RPPC. Private Collection.

This picture reminds me of the famous painting done twenty years later in 1930. This beautiful couple is on farm ground with a wagon and horse peeking to the left and another wagon, barn and house to the right (I see the barn being red). The man is dressed in a light colored Norfolk suit, and his wife is in a simple white cotton or linen dress with the large buttons going down the skirt. She’s wearing square buckle shoes and he the ever-fashionable Victorian boots with the side buttons.

A beautiful picture of a couple living in the American countryside.

RPPC: AZO 1907-1914


Finding Leonard Spiller again (with his family)

1903 Cabinet Card. Private Collection.

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).

leonard-spiller-age-progression

I found some photos of his family from the same seller. A photo gallery of Leonard and family members after the cut.

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