Figure 1.-- This cabinet portrait was taken in 1890. The unidentified boy wears a blouse-top kilt suit. Notice the floppy bow and soft hat. The studio was Bullard in Peterborough in New Hampshire. It was a rare dated mount, telling us it was taken in 1890. It looks to us as if this was originally a whitish color, but has lost its white shade because of yellowing. We are not, however. entirely sure what the original color was.

We notice a wide range of colors used for Ameican cabinet card mounts. Quite a few different shades were used. Color was an innovation for the cabinet cards. These fall into two basic groupings, dark colors and whitish tones. We rarely see light colors. The dark colors include blue, brown, green, black, and maroon (reddish brown). The brown and maroon seem especially common. We also notice a range of whitish shdes such as ivory. Whitish colored cards seem especally popular in the 1890s. This is a little difficult `to assess because the white shades discolored over time because of yellowing. Differentiting white shades is challenge and we do not think at this stage is a paticularly useful endevor. We notice cream colored cards, which is a fairly easy white shade to identify, but these seem more common at the turn-of-the 20th century in the 1900s with the new styled mounts. Right now we think that the trends for the dark colors are basically the same, but we may be able to find more color specific terms as we expand our archive of dated cards.

Blue

Brown

Dark brown was one of the dark shades including blue, green, and marron commonly used for cabinent card mounts. Ontuil the turn of the 20th century, all the brown cabinent cards wre very dark shade of brown. The brown and maroon colored mounts seem especially common. These dark shades were especially common in the 1870s and 80s. We have found numerous examples, although only afew are dated, allowing usto make a definitice determination as to the chronology of these mounts. We believe that the chronology of all of these dark-colord mounts is essentially the same, although we can not yet say this definitively with dated examples. We hope to ne more definitive as HBC expands. A good example is a portrait of Carl Butler, a Portland, Oregon boy in 1886.

Cream

We notice cream colored cards, which is a fairly easy white shade to identify, but these seem more common at the turn-of-the 20th century in the 1900s with the new styled mounts. Cram shades were less common before the 1890s and turn-of-the 20th century.

Green

Maroon

White

A substantial portion of the cabinets cards we have archived durung the 1890s were mounts with whitish shades. We do not see many white mounts before he 1890s. We also notice a range of whitish shades such as ivory. Whitish colored cards seem especally popular in the 1890s. This is alittle difficult `to assess because the white shades discolored over time because of yellowing. Some cards show bright white colors. While other cards are dull and yellowed. We do not know what the original color was. A factor here is how the cards were stored. Differentiating white shades is a challenge and we do not think at this stage is a paticularly useful endevor. But all of the white shades are particularly associated with the 1890s.

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Created: 10:02 PM 4/26/2014
Last updated: 8:18 PM 4/27/2015