Sarah Jane Quilter Leicester, date & colour.

[starcat]

This is my great grandmother & possibly my grandfather, could anyone give me an idea of the date it could have been taken, it is a copy so there is no useful information on the back & could someone please colour it, i would love to see the dress in full colour.

[chinakay]

What do you mean by it being a copy, starcat? if there is any printing at all on the back we'd like to see it please, but in the meantime I'd say late 1870s, would that fit?

Cheers,
China

[tommyfromri]

a colour version from me.   , Tommy

[Trishanne]

One from me
Pat

[saddles]

Hi Starcat........My effort.


Carolyn 

[starcat]

China, Its a scanned copy of the original, Sarah Jane Roberts wasnt born until 1866/67,she died in 1910 age 44 Grandfather Henry was born in 1890, so if this  is 1870s it cant be either of them, oh dear, the cousin who has the original photo who identified Sarah sadly died last year so i cant ask her.
Tommy, Pat & Saddles, thank you so much they are stunning, I never thought dresses from earlier times were very nice but with colour you can see how beautiful  this  dress realy is.

[chinakay]

Well...I could be way off...the photo is a bit ambiguous but the lady's chignon at the back of her head is a late 1870s thing, the sleeves are 1870s and you see how the floor is a bit out of focus, that's a limitation of early camera lenses that had disappeared long before the 1890s. The bows on the skirt are an 1870s style, very fussy. I just can't make this photo fit with any other decade, especially those sleeves. 1880s and 1890s sleeves had very distinctive styles and not anything like these. And I can't see an 1890s little boy wearing what he's got, although those shoes make me wonder a bit. Should be boots.

I would really, really like to see the whole photo, uncropped, especially the outer edges showing the corners...and also the back. But if you don't have it, you don't have it 

After staring at this again for quite a while, still saying late 1870s...but I'm going to ping jim1 and ask him. It's ambiguous and I could be very wrong. Now it's bugging me 

Cheers,
China

[chinakay]

Okay, Jim had a look and says there is an outside chance of it being late 1860s, but much more likely 1870s. So it's settled, but your problem is not 

The boy's sailor cap is on the table, and he's holding a boat. So it's a sailor outfit he's got on I guess 

Just to add to the confusion, people exchanged photos with friends as well as family. Social networking was much more important back then as it was the only safety net available.

Cheers,
China

[terry h]

Two more.

Terry