1890s Marion Imp. Paris cabinet card Rd No 161785

[gobbitt]

Vignetting has concealed most of this young lady's dress (mid-1890s?) so I hope her broad lace collar can be dated more exactly.

The mount is unusually bare, lacking any mention of the photographer, but the design (wild roses & birds, number 161785) was registered in 1890 (BT 50/147) and the Marion date code may be interpreted as 1893 if "Marion Imp. Paris is followed by three underscores. (It's not clear whether there are two dots between two dashes, nor whether the dot below the Imp is deliberate.)

David

[Treetotal]

This dates around mid-late 1890s
Carol

[Wiggy]

Agree Carol . . . . . It is the huge sleeves that give it away isn"'t it?

Nice photo!

Wiggy.

[Treetotal]

It's a lovely photo..are you a collector David or is she family?
Carol

[gobbitt]

Hi Carol

Thanks for your contributions.

Not my family: I bought this portrait online (from a Cornwall-based Etsy trader) to allow me to share it and to get a better look at the MIP code, "Marion Imp. Paris_ _ _ or "Marion Imp. Paris_.._ (see new extract: not absolutely clear, even at 1200 dpi).

The seller had dated it from the registered number to 1898, which is given by Roger Vaughan (presumably as a year of known usage) at the end his page on Marion - Victorian Photograph Card Printers. That seemed a little late for what I could see of the sleeves, although such an attractive mount design may well have remained popular long after it was registered in 1890.

My MIP research continues, with the kind collaboration of both you and Jim, who is equally unconvinced of the code's dating potential, in relation to a photo from my own family (Cherubs & camera: Marion & Co. registered design no 41058?).

David

[Treetotal]

The later the decade...the bigger the sleeves and I have seen them bigger than this towards the end of the decade. Dating photos is not an exact science for many reasons and sitters may not always be up to date with fashion...equally card stock can be used past their sell by date.
Carol

[gobbitt]

Various styles of sleeve are displayed in my great-grandparents' 1898 wedding photo, which I will post as a new topic, probably tomorrow.

Here are a couple of lace collars advertised by a French family magazine, La Mode Illustrée, in 1894. I don't know whether these particular patterns ever crossed the Channel (or La Manche!) but I suppose similar collars would have been worn in many countries at that time.

For me, the fuzziness of fashions underlines the need to develop complementary modes of dating photographs. The MIP code seems to be a lot less specific than Roger Vaughan hoped but it could still be a useful tool, if cracked. At least the registered design numbers (catalogued by The National Archives in BT 50 and BT 51) are reliable indicators of earliest possible dates.

David