Various men and women, seated
By: usermattw
Tags: antiques, Bourne, CDV, Halifax, Harrogate, photography, Portsmouth, vintage photography
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I love each of these little cartes de visite images, but wasn’t sure they demanded individual posts. So for fun, I’m sharing them together. All rather rigidly affecting what are supposed to be relaxed poses, all managing to look good in any case. And all English. As usual, so many interesting details despite the simplicity of the images’ compositions. The young woman in the upper right has such striking eyes, I thought perhaps they had been touched up, but no, those are just her eyes. As for the man in the lower right, I’m not sure what the object is on the table below his forearm. And I’m not certain, but the photographer’s name appears to have been handwritten rather than mechanically printed, which I’m not used to seeing. For the record, the photographers are [clockwise from top left]: J[ames] Holroyd of Harrogate & Huddersfield; T[homas] Illingworth of Halifax; [W. B.] Newland & Co. of Portsmouth; and [Benjamin] Wyles of Bourne. The backs aren’t terribly exciting, but here they are if you’re interested [click to enlarge]:
Pics of Then 
The lady at lower left has some creative embroidery (?) on her dress. In fact, her belt may even be embroidered, although it’s hard to say for sure.
She sure does. I was trying to figure out if that was embroidery on her collar or jewelry. Also, the woman in the upper right has an ornate design on the cuffs of her sleeves, assuming that isn’t jewelry, too.