Figure 1.--This English school cabinet card is undated, but we can approximately date it because of the destinctive baloon sleve dress of the teacher to the right. We believe it bwas taken about 1895. These highly decorative mounts are desinctively English. We so not see anything like them in America. They seem popular in Englkand from about 1895-1910.

The new style Engliah cabinebt card mounts vary in size, shape, and color. This was quite a deoarture as the classic mounts were so similar. Larger cards seem more common, but curioudsly not necesarily larger image sizes. Some of the cards has larger cards but relatively small images, meaning that the image covered much less of the total area of the card. This seems to have been most common in the 1900s. We are not sure why anyone would prefer this as opposed to a larger image, but it was popular for a time. There were different mount colors, but the same grey-green color we see in America was also popular in England. And we see highly decorative mounts. We do not know why the more varied new style mounts suddenly became popular. Unlike the classic mounts there were many different shapes and sizes. These new style mounts also appeared 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 on the previous page. The highly decorative mounts are characterestically English.

Created: 4:43 AM 3/24/2019
Last updated: 4:44 AM 3/24/2019