Figure 1.---Ths CDV was taken in June 1863. The boys would be about 6-9 years old. The boys are dressed absolutely identically down to theclast detail with matching cut-away jackets and vests, both done with piping. The pants are bloomer knickers with buttons and stripes. They have small white collars and rubbon ties. One interesting aspect of their outfits is striped long stockings. This is interesting because in America we do not see striped stockings until the 1870s. Notice that there is no printing on the mountvand the pose from a distance. I am mot sure how to secribe the cormers, but I think they are sharp rather than rounded. This CDV is dated, but it could have been dated to the decade by large unfilled top area. The pose artistically dine pose seems more like later CDVs.

We see large numbers of English CDVs from the 1860s, beginning in the very early-60s. This is the first decade in which large vnumbers of photographic images become available in England. The turning point appears to have been when André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri, a French CDV pioneer, began selling CDVs of Emperor Napoleon III. This made the format an overnight sensation. Dags and Ambros were family images. With CDVs an individual could not only have family portraits, but could purchase portraits of famous people as well. The difference of course was the negatives which could be used to reproduced the images in large numbers without any reduction in quality. This was enormously popular in the days before photographs could be published in magazines and newspapers. The phenomenon was called 'cardomania'. The same trend was observeable in America. As in America, the early CDVs have square corners. The posing of early-CDVs is not as uniform as is the case of American CDVs. This may reflect the relative popuularity of albums. We also se destinctive poses, especially the subjects being posed at a distance and only making up a part of the image. Many early CDVs had no printing on the font or back, but by the end of the dcade, mounts with printing begin to appear. At any rate we see large number of British photographs for the first time in the 1860s. And as a result, we know a great deal about English in the 1860s and subsequent decades, much more than any previous period in English history.

Prevalence

We see large numbers of English CDVs from the 1860s, beginning in the very early-60s. This is the first decade in which large vnumbers of photographic images become available in England. The turning point appears to have been when André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri, a French CDV pioneer, began selling CDVs of Emperor Napoleon III. This made the format an overnight sensation. Dags and Ambros were family images. With CDVs an individual could not only have family portraits, but could purchase portraits of famous people as well. The phenomenon was called 'cardomania'. The same trend was observeable in America. At any rate we see large number of British photographs for the first time in the 1860s. And as a result, we know a great deal about English in the 1860s and subsequent decades, much more than any previous period in English history.

Negatives

The difference of course was the negatives which could be used to reproduced the images in large numbers without any reduction in quality. This was enormously popular in the days before the development of lithography and photographs could be published in magazines and newspapers. It was a major advantage of albumen processing.

Characteristics

The 1860s CDVs are some of the easiest CDVs to date. As in America, the early CDVs have square corners. The posing of early-CDVs is not as uniform as is the case of American CDVs. This may reflect the relative popuularity of albums. We also see destinctive poses, especially the subjects being posed at a distance and only making up a part of the image. Some continued the basic Dag pose of sitting besides a fabric covered table. We see CDVs with very large white margins like the one here (figure 1). We think that many CDVs had ruling. We do not yet have many dated 1860s English CDVs. We think that ruling was vry common, but can not yet confirm this with actual examples. Ruling was very commin on early Ameican CDVs, but not the white margins we see here. Many early CDVs had no printing on the font or back, but by the end of the decade, mounts with printing begin to appear on the mounts to identify the studios. .

Created: 4:16 AM 7/14/2012
Last updated: 12:29 PM 12/25/2017