Carte De Visite - Card Design

It was standard practice in Victorian times for a photographer to advertise his business on the mounting cards, either on the front or the back of the card or both. Some even allowed others to advertise on the reverse of the cards. Whilst some photographers really made an effort to produce an attractive mount for their photos, others used standard designs produced by large card manufacturers such as Marion & Co, Spicer Bros and Abraham. The early cards from the 1860's were quite plain but as time went on the cards became more elaborate, sometimes coloured card was used and some of the mounts were even edged in real English gold. A study of the card design is useful in dating old photographs, the thickness of the material, the style of printing, the design itself and even the shape of the corners of the card can be used as a guide to indicate when the card was produced. The portrait itself of course gives lots of dating information, the hair styles, fashions in clothing, and the trends in portraiture, such as the use of backgrounds and props are all useful indicators. Others have researched this in great detail and books have been written on the subject but it not proposed to go into any great detail here.

Some examples of the more elaborate and artistic card designs from the local photographers are shown here.

The larger card manufacturers produced standard designs which could be personalised by incorporating the name and address of the studio. The examples shown below were produced by Marion & Co and marked Marion Imp Paris. It is possible to get an idea as to when the photograph was taken or at least when they were mounted by dating the design. Alternatively we can look at it the other way around and date the design by knowing the dates when the studio operated from that particular address. The Royal Photographic Society have produced lists of photographers for many towns and cities including Leeds and Bradford. By using these lists it is possible to see when photographers operated from particular addresses and also when a photographer moved on and who took over the studio. Local directories can also be referred to. Although the lists are extremely useful as a starting point the precise start and end date for a studio can often only be determined by studying local press advertising. Sometimes the cards themselves reveal new information such as additional studio addresses or the established from date.

The first card shown below has no address for the Joseph Bottomley studio which is unusual as Joseph seemed to always put his address on the cards and he did move studios quite regularly. Perhaps when he had this card produced he was in the middle of a move or he had to buy the cards in such bulk that he didn't want them to become out of date. The second card from J Houghton can be given an approximate date as Houghton operated from a New Wortley address from 1886-1899. This design is known as the seated artist. The three cards from William Smith show that he was a regular customer of Marion and Co, all three have the 14 New Briggate address on them but on the one with the large letter P he also has the 57 Park Lane address. William operated from New Briggate from 1881 until 1887 and prior to that in Park Lane from 1870 until 1881. So if the card has both addresses then it would indicate that it was most likely produced in 1881, whereas the other two were later but most certainly the 1880's. It is possible that the studios offered their sitters a choice of cards, they most certainly offered then a choice of finishes. Examples survive where the same photo is on different card stock and same photo exists printed using different processes, although it must be born in mind that the sitter may have had reprints produced at a later date. For further information on Marion & Co designs see the website by Roger Vaughan which has lots of useful dating information.

Some photographer included an illustration of the studio premises. The examples shown here are the Appleton Studio at Horton Lane, Bradford, Joseph Bottomley's Studio at Sunbridge Bradford, Clapham's studio in Wade Lane Leeds and Harrison and Sons premises in Woodhouse Lane. It can be seen that both Appleton and Bottomley's studios had glass roofs to let in maximum daylight. Studio design is a subject all on its own but many photographers preferred north facing studios as direct sunlight didn't affect their operation and they didn't have to rely on the extensive use of blinds. Henry Peach Robinson, one of the greatest and well respected Victorian photographers wrote a very interesting book on studio design which can be viewed online. Only a limited number of cards could be printed from a printing block and with the Appleton example a number of different versions of this image exist with slight variations indicating that many cards were produced and the blocks had to be replaced on a regular basis.

National and International photographic exhibitions were held regularly and it was a chance for the photographers to show off their work and to see what the others were doing. Medals were awarded for the best photos and details of these would sometimes be printed on the cards. Being awarded medals would certainly help to promote their business and send out the right sort of message to prospective customers.

The medals shown on the Fordsmith card include the James Watt silver medal awarded by the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. Looking at the dates of the awards again can give some indication as to the date of the photograph and mount. One of the most prolific winners of awards was Leeds born photographer Frank Meadow Sutcliffe who is best known for his work in Whitby. He won so many awards that there was no space to show the medals themselves, he just listed the dates and venues.

The designs were a way of advertising the business and the wording and every aspect of the design could be used to pass information to the prospect. Heslop Woods, Winterhalter and C H Braithwaite used the Leeds Coat of Arms within their card design which may have sent a message to prospects that they were perhaps part of the establishment. Whether they were or whether they even had approval to use the coat of arms is another matter. The most extreme case of publishing statements without approval and/or publishing misleading statements is perhaps when a photographer publicises the fact that they were photographers to the Queen or Royalty. Wormald made such statements in his advertising, but you may say he had a right to do so, as he did produce a series of photos of Leeds Town Hall, which were presented to Queen Victoria when she visited Leeds to open the building in 1858 but he may not have taken any portraits of Royalty. Oliver Sarony professed to be photographer to the Queen, the Freemans Journal dated 12th Feb 1859 supports this claim by stating Mr Sarony "has earned the distinction of being appointed photographer to Her Majesty the Queen" . The card below produced by Oliver Sarony was printed in 1864 or 1865 and you will notice it has square corners which was a feature of the cards produced in the 1860s.