I recently came across a reference to what appears to be a sub type of carte de visite (rather than to cartomania) – the “sensation carte de visite”.
It’s not a term that I had come across before, and a search for the phrase on BNA only found it in use in adverts by a couple of UK photographers in the period 1860 – 1870, Thomas Plimmer in Belfast and four years later by James Hardie in St Andrews (St. Andrews Gazette and Fifeshire News - Saturday 14 August 1869 p1a).
I’m hoping that someone may be able to enlighten me as to exactly what they are / were, and perhaps show us an example.
Thanks.
Image: Belfast Morning News - 01 April 1865 p2d (© British Library / British Newspaper Archive)
Comments
Thanks for your input Paul. As you say the CDV 'novelty' would have worn off by April 1865, Oliver Sarony introduced cartes de visite to Belfast in December 1860.
As AI has suggested, I tend to think that this was more a buzz word borrowed for advertising purposes rather than a sub-genre of the CDV process/product. What with so many chancers jumping on the bandwagon in the 1860s, competition for customers was fierce, and it's possible that a couple of photographers latched on to this 'word of the moment' in the hope that it might give them an edge over other studios in the vicinity. Having said that, I note that the two examples you've found date from 1865 and 1869 respectively, by which point it would have been stretching the truth to call CDVs a sensation, as those halcyon days had long passed by then. But perhaps that's why you've only found two examples of this combination of words. Other photographers didn't see any value in copying this line of advertising. I also think that if this really did represent some genuine difference from bog standard CDVs, you'd have found many more than two examples of the phrase being used in print. Take for example the arrival of the 'diamond gem' in 1865. Also called the 'cameo gem' and sometimes 'the diamond cameo.' This was a genuine novelty and it was reported on many, many times in the photographic press. See pages 393 and 395 in my book.
Also, looking at this from another angle, if the 'sensation carte de visite' really were something new and different, how likely is it that it only reared its head in Belfast and St Andrews? I'd say it was highly unlikely. It would have been popping up all over the place. Photographers were desperate for ways to restore some novelty to the format.
Thanks Joe, putting aside my AI scepticism, the idea of a novelty pose seems most interesting.
James Hardie’s advert differentiated thus:
“Carte de Visites from 6s per dozen.
Also his new sensation Carte-de-Visite.”
Paul Frecker devoted a chapter on nineteen century cultural sensations captured on cartes in his recent book Cartomania, but the context it is used here, an in-house technique in provincial studios, seems different for Paul’s examples.
This is the response from a question put to AI online - for what it is worth....
The "sensation carte de visite" was a photographic advertising term used by a few British photographers in the 1860s. It was a variant of the popular carte de visite, a small, mounted photograph the size of a visiting card.
The "sensation" label likely referred to one or more of the following:
Advertising tactic: It was a marketing gimmick to capitalize on the public craze for collecting cartes de visite and to distinguish a photographer's work from competitors.
Novelty poses: The name may have been associated with dramatic or unusual poses that stood out from the era's common, stiff portraits. This connects it to the 19th-century "sensation novel," a genre of fiction known for its dramatic and shocking subject matter.
"Animated" poses: The special multi-lens cameras used to create cartes de visite were capable of taking several photos in quick succession. A "sensation" card could have featured a short sequence of shots of the same subject moving or changing pose, creating a primitive sense of animation.
References to the term have only been found in advertisements from a few specific UK photographers between 1860 and 1870, suggesting it was not a widespread or formal sub-category of photography.