jo hague's Page

"This is a Marion & Co cdv back, and as you say they often used the same designs with just the photographer's name changed."

" Ron, sorry I thought I'd replied but I cant see it - further details followed in subsequent posts. Thanks"

"The 1887 Percy Lund catalogue can be found and downloaded here - https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t7dr6qh0q&;... He also wrote a handbook at the turn of the century "Photography for Novices" published by W.…"

"You will find that printers such as Percy Lund & Co had a massive range of options when it came to producing backing cards for local photographers. You can find his 1887 catalog online. Here is a page from it showing 18 x 14 sizes along with a a…"

"Thanks to all for the thoughts so far on this and I will certainly read Ron's links provided by Rob to learn more. One small correction: when I said I'd seen other CDVs from the Bristol company I meant I'd seen them generally - and…"

"The pencil annotations will be an instruction / reminder much as you have deduced above, and commercial photographers did retain the negatives to generate more income from prints; 952 could be a negative (or order) number. I'm afraid that am…"

"A lot of designs were shared by studios. I have seen this one also used by Thomas Donovan of Brighton and Boak and Sons of Malton and Driffield.  "

"Yes I agree - the simplest explanation is as you say. And rhere is a lot of doubt over the identity of the couple - currently there is nothing to support or deny the contention that the photo is of a family member. Maybe someone just thought it…"

"The CDV in the images attached came from a descendent of the family in Lancashire. It was contained in a family photo collection but otherwise its provenance is unknown - it may of course not be a photo of a forebear at all, but for some reason at…"

"Apologies for my earlier brevity James, I agree. It appears to be a standard c.1880s CDV on the face of it presumably taken in Bristol. I was attempting to suggest that if they had relatives in Bristol it might have been taken there and then sent…"

"I may be wrong but wouldn't the handwritten 'copy' be instructions to a photographer (possibly with dimensions below) to copy this image, rather than this image being a copy?"

"Hi, Am I to assume from the above that the family that you are researching are in Lancashire? Did they have relatives in Bristol? At the top the reverse of the CDV says "Copy". Just a thought. Regards Rob"

"here:"

"Can you post an example showing front and back of the mount? Ron Cosens"

"Interesting point. There is some evidence that studios might sell off surplus stock if it didn't have a studio name, or that if an employee left to find a new job you'd sometimes see them take card with them - hopefully with their former…"