Figure 1.-- This CDV portrait shows a child only identified as ELG wearing a darrk dress with a ruffled collar and wide plaid sash--notice the big bow are back. The portrait was dated February 6, 1884. Notice the rounded corbners of the CDV and the studio information at the bottom is done in the style of a cabinet card. Both help to date CDVs, but in this case it is dated. The studio was Charles Keeping in Exe Bridge, Exeter, Devon.

There are three primary albumen formats. Fhe first to appear was the carte de visite (CDV). The CDV was invented in France. It appeared in the 1850s, but did not become wildly popular until about 1860. The CDV was the smallest format. The name comes from there being used as calling cards. Stereo view cards apppeared in numbers about the same time. The larger cabinet cards appeared in the mid-1860s. Cabinet cards in America rapidly replaced CDVs. For some reason, in Britain and several other European countries, the smaller CDV continued to be the primary photographic portrait into the 1880s. We are notvsure why the smaller format was so popular for so long. It is not until the CDV in the 1860s that we begin to see large numbers of Engish photographs. The early formats like Dags and Ambros were not nearly as common as in America. The albumen process was a breakthrough because it was inexpensive and as a negative process, mltiple copies could be made for country and friends. And they were ideal for collecting in albums.

CDVs

The first commercial negative process was the albumen print. This began with the carte-de-viste (CDV) which was first appeared in France during the early-1850s, but were not immediately popular. We are not sure when the first English studio appeared. We do not see many English CDVs from the 1850s, but we do see lsrge numbers from the early-60s. The turning point appeas 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. ags and Anmbros were family images. With CDVs you coukd not only have famiky portraits, but portraits of famous people. This wa enormously popular in the days before photographs could be publidhed in magazines and newspapers. The phenomenon was called 'cardomania'. The same trend was ibseeveable in America. CDVs were all a fairly standard size, both in France and the other countries like England where they became popular. The size was chosen to be that of a calling card which explains the name. They were used like callig cards in polite society. And albums quickly appeared to archive the CDVs and share with visitior in the family parlor. The CDV was hugely popular in England. We suddenly see an exponential increase in the number of photographic portraits in the form of CDVs. The Daguerreotype was introduced (1840s), but we see a rather limited number of Dags made in England and the same was true with Ambrois when they were introduced (1850s). The CDV was a very different matter. The CDV was the dominant format by the 1860s. Mny early CDVs had square corners and did not have the studio information on the front. The CDV continued to be the principal commercial photographic portrait in the 1870s and even thr 80s. The can=binet cards were slower to ctch on in England than was the case in America. We notice that some English mounts during the 1870s were very basic with just the studio and city printed in block letters. The studio at the left and the city at the right. This was very common in England. Lter the CDVs began to look kike small cabinet cards.

Cabinet Cards

The cabinet card also used the albumen process. It was essentially a large CDV. The cabinet card was introduced in England a few year after the CDV (1866). It was used somewhat differetly than the CDV. Cabinet cards were not used as calling cards. Like CDVs there were standard size, 10 mm (4.5 in) by 170 mm (6.5 in). This was the same on the contunent and in North america and did not change significantly until the turn-of-the 20th century. They were large enough that they coud be propped up in cabinets, on pianos, or other places in parlors and other rooms. Unlike Anerica they were not an immediate success. We are not sure why there was such a difference between Englabd and America. We not begin to see more cabinent cards until the 1880s. We are not sure just when the cabinet card became the principal portrait type. We see large numbers of CDVs in the late-19th century. Many more than in America wher the cabinet card became the dominat format in the 1870s. We even see CDVs in England in the early-20th century. Our English archive is more limited than our American archive, thus we can not yet work out the rekative importance of these formats with any precession.. We do note some similarities as to mount styles and studio posing and background settings, but because of our limited English archive we are still working out the details.

Stereo View Cards

Most upper and middlr-class families anf some working class families had stereoscope in their parlors. They were inbexpensive decices to view stereo view cards. The stere view card was a stereoscopic pair of separate images, taken by a special camera. The steroscope provided a left and right-eye views of the same scene, creating a three-dimensional image. The stereo view card consisted of two paper photographic prints pasted onto a 3 1/2 by 7 inch card. Unlike albums with family portarits, these were commercial cards to view the world, including landmarks, cities, natural wonnders, foreign countries, animals, and much more. Families would have collections of these cards which the family and visitors could view. Several companies profuced and offered the cards for sale. THe earliest stereoscope were invented in England by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1838 and David Brewster at about the same time. We are not sure what kind of views were available in the 1840s and 50s, but they were nostly glass paltes. There were somr stereo view cards available in the late 1850s, but we are not sure how mamy. American Oliver Wendell Holmes created a n imprived versiions upon which the popular devides appearing in millions of homes were based in 1861. It is at this time that large numbrs od stereo view cards appear in Ametica and Europe. They were popular because halftone lithography had not yet been developed for repriducing photographic images in newspapers and magazines. The public was starved for images anf this eas the best way to get them until the turn-of =the 20th centuru when lithographt technology was perfected.

Created: 5:46 PM 11/28/2019
Last updated: 5:46 PM 11/28/2019