Figure 1.--Here we see a cabinet card portrait of Ernst Arthur Echdahl [writing unclear]. He is wearing a long pants sailor suit with ringlet curls. The portrait is undated, but Ernst was born in 1890 and he looks about 6-years old. So the portait was taken about 1896. The studo was L.H. Felt in Chicago. Notice the impressed printing.

We see raised/embossed or impressed lettering for the first time in the 1890s. We think that the embossed and impressed cards had very similar chronology, but can not yet conform that. This should become more appaeent as we develop the topic. One source suggests that cards with embossing date to the 1894-1900, at least on the classic cabinet card mounts. This sounds about right to us. And it offers an easy of dating these cards to a narrowly defind period. It is thus very useful, although because of the short time period, it affects only a small portion of cabinet cards. We have found examples from the mid- and late-1890. The card on a previous page was dated 1896. We are adding examples as we find dated cards to confirm this chronology. We have not yet found embossing after the turn-of-the 20th century. Studio impressed cards did not end in 1900. We notice impressed studio informaton in the 1900s and 10s, but they were mostly on the new style mounts appearing at the turn-of-the 20th century, but we do not see embossing. This is all just our initial assessment. We re just beginning to assess all this in detail.

Embossed Lettering

We see raised/embossed lettering for the first time in the 1890s. The embossing included both raised and lowered lettering. We have not yet found examples from the 1880s or for that matter the very early 1890s. We think that the embossed and impressed cards had very similar chronology, but can not yet conform that. This should become more apparent as we develop the topic. Impressed lettering seems more associted with the new style cabinet cards apearing at the turn-of-the-entury. Some are a little harder to read than the printed studio information, but they seem very popular in the 1890s.

Decades

One source suggests that cards with embossing date to the 1894-1900, at least on the classic cabinet card mounts. This sounds about right to us, although we have found several examples from 1893. This offers an easy of dating these cards to a narrowly defind period. It is thus very useful, although because of the short time period, it affects only a small portion of cabinet cards. We have found examples from the mid- and late-1890. The card on a previous page was dated 1896. We are adding examples as we find dated cards to confirm this chronology. We have not yet found embossing after the turn-of-the 20th century. Studio impressed cards did not end in 1900. We notice impressed studio informaton in the 1900s and 10s, but they were mostly on the new style mounts appearing at the turn-of-the 20th century, but we do not see embossing. This is all just our initial assessment. We re just beginning to assess all this in detail.

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Created: 10:50 AM 2/13/2015
Last updated: 6:16 AM 3/15/2015