Figure 1.-- This cabinet card portrait shows a boy wearing what looks school clothes, perhaps a grammar school boy. . Hecwears a school cap, large Eton collar, and small bowtie. He is identified as Willie Brown. The portrait is undated, but we woukd guess it was taken about 1900-05. The mount is notable for thec elaborate decoration and small size of the actual circular image. It is an example of the new cabinet card mounts that appeared about the turn-of-the 20th century. It was about 6.75 by 10.25 cm. It was taken at Quayside. The Quayside is the area along the northern bank (called quay in Britain) of the River Tyne in Newcastle upon Tyne. Thesouthern bank was called Gateshead. At the time that the portrait was taken, Quayside was an important industrial area and busy commercial dockside serving the area, while the Newcastle side also hosted a regular street market.

Mounts can be very helpful in dating cabinet cards. The mounts we see in Britain including the studio information at the bottom of the card were very similar to American cabinet cards. This is important because we have worked out more information on American cabinet vards athan Britis cards. We wonder if some of the same companies may have been involved. We note considerable similarities with American portraits as the mount styles and studio posing and background settings are virtually identical. Cabinet card mounts were very similar in the 19th century (1860s-90s). Without the studio information at the bottom, it would be difficult to differentiate American and English cabinet cards. Even the lettering is similar. This was often not the case for CDVs. Because of our limited English archive, however, we are still working out the details. While there were many similarities, there were also differences. We see mount style changing at the turn-of-the 20th century. This also occurred in America and at the same time. At this time we more differences between English and American cabinet cards. We notice differences in sizes and decoration. As some of the new styles do not have the studio information, identifying the countries of origin can be difficult. These mounts were mostly used for studio portraits, but at the end if the century we note that itinerant photographers were taking outdoor portraits so we also see these images on studio cabinet card mounts. Color is also helpful in dating cabinetv cards.

Mount Styles

Mounts can be very helpful in dating cabinet cards. The mounts we see in Britain including the studio information at the bottom of the card were very similar to American cabinet cards. This is important because we have worked out more information on American cabinet cards than British cards. We wonder if some of the same companies producing mount stock may have been involved. We note considerable similarities with American portraits as the mount styles and studio posing and background settings are virtually identical. Cabinet card mounts were very similar in the 19th century (1860s-90s). Without the studio information at the bottom, it would be difficult to differentiate American and English cabinet cards. Even the lettering is similar. This was often not the case for CDVs. Because of our limited English archive, however, we are still working out the details. While there were many similarities, there were also differences. We see mount style changing at the turn-of-the 20th century. Some of the classis mounts can still be found from the early 1900s, but the new style mounts mostly date from the 20th century. This also occurred in America and at the same time. At this time we more differences between English and American cabinet cards. We notice differences in sizes and decoration. We do not, for example, see American cabinet cards like the one here (figure 1). As some of the new styles do not have the studio information, identifying the countries of origin can be difficult.

Lettering

The English cabinet cards we have found have the same format as we see in America. The name of the studio it at the left, often in a facy script. The cty is at the right. In America the state is usually added. In England this varied, we often see the city with the street address. Lodon as so imortant that ften thestudo did not boter with the city name but used the neighborhood. We note some variaton with this basic convention. We do not, however, have enough cards in our archive to know if the variations involved chronological trends. We suspect that in the 1890s we begin to see more cards that did not follow the establish coventons, bu radical changes in card mounts did not begin until the turn-of-the 20th century.

Studios

These mounts were mostly used for studio portraits, but at the end if the century we note that itinerant photographers were taking outdoor portraits. Apparently some of these photographers worked for or were assiociated with local studios. So we also see these images on studio cabinet card mounts. This seems more common in Britain than was the case in America or even the Continent.

Mount Colors

Cabinet card mounts were done in a range of colors. We note both whitish cards as well as dark colors and a range of shades in between. This is very similar to the colors we have noted with American cabinet cards mounts. The popularity of these colors varied over time and thus can be helpful in dating the cards. Some cards have notations on the back as to names, ages, and dates, but most do not. Thus the mount colors can along with other indicators such as clothing styles help to date thev cards. Our initial assessment is that the colr variation is similar to, but not identical with America. Thus our work on American cabinet cards can bev useful, but not definitive in dating English cards. Thus we are archiving dated English cards to establish some time lines. We note dark colors like blue, green, and red, but have not yet worked out the dates. We note a dark green card in 1893, but we believe that they were more common earlier. We see a lot of whitish- or cream-colored mounts in the 1890s.

Gilded Edging and Borders

Some cabinet cards were dome with gilded borders and edges. We are not sure to what extent the cards with gilded borders also had gilded edges. This is not readily apparent in the images we have collected. You need the actual card to be sure. We do not have many examples of this, especially dated examples. An American cabinet card assessment dates gilt borders to 1878-86. Another American source suggests red or gold rules, single and double lines (1866-80 ), wide gold borders (1884-85), and gold beveled edges (1885-92). We are not sure how accuate this was or to what extent it these dating estmates apply to England. What we have found so far is that were differences. We note a cabinet card of the Bampfield children in 1895 with the wide gilt border.

Created: 1:44 AM 7/29/2012
Last updated: 8:36 AM 6/17/2019