Cabinet Cards and CDVs

A swing photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park ( swings and hammocks—please post a photo of each if you have both ). "Blaul, Philadelphia. Extra finish." A baby posed on a swing from the studio of Louis Blaul, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. See also the reverse of this cabinet card photo.

"Blaul, Portraits in crayon and pastel a specialty. 56 N. Eighth St. and 1937 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. Duplicates at any time." Photographer Louis Blaul's backmark from the reverse of a cabinet card photo of a baby on a swing .

A photo from Budapest for the Vintage Photos Theme Park in memory of our dear friend, Nori (see Sad News ). A mother and her two daughters posed for this cabinet card photo in the Budapest studio of Elbl and Pietsch sometime after 1897 (see below for the back of this photo). Note the girls' unique hairstyles and their fashionable dresses with enormous leg-of-mutton or gigot sleeves. The painted backdrop is somewhat indistinct but what looks like the bottom of an elaborate staircase appears on the left. The chairs are made of bamboo (or perhaps faux bamboo) and are decorated with tassels. As one girl sits in a chair holding a book, the other girl stands with one hand resting in a comforting gesture on her mother's shoulder. Her other hand is holding some flowers alongside the arm of her mother's chair. So let's remember dear Nori and cherish the treasured images she has shared with us here on Ipernity and over on Flickr . Perhaps you'll want to compare this photo with the dozen other photos and backmarks from the same studio that Nori collected in her Elbl & Pietsch album on Flickr.

Elbl és Pietsch, udvari fényképész, Fő utcza 18, Budapest. Approximate translation: Elbl and Pietsch, royal photographer, 18 Main Street, Budapest. Can anyone figure out the handwritten words at the bottom? Perhaps they're the names of the three women who appear on the front of this cabinet card:

I'm trying to imagine what happened at the photo studio that day. Photographer: Well, ladies, I've just received a couple of interesting new props that we can use in your portrait today. There's one here and another one over there. Do you prefer the former or the latter? Ladies: Oh, we'll take the ladder , of course! Otherwise, there are no identifying details that might help to explain the origin of this unique photo.

A Victorian-era chromolithographed card with an added photo (a rectangular portion of the card was cut out of the middle, and the photo--part of a CDV--was affixed to the back). As far as I can determine, "Merry Christmas 1890" is what's stamped at the top.

A photo of friends for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Printed on the back: "J. M. Snyder, photographist, Berwick, Pa. Duplicates can be had at any time." Three jaunty fellows--friends with self-assured looks on their faces and cigars in their mouths--peer out at us from this nineteenth-century carte de visite photo. Checkered vests and pants must have been in vogue at the time.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of defaced or altered—any photo that was found with the face scratched off, marked out, cut, etc. If you don't have a defaced photo in your collection, you can post any found photo that has been altered in some way, such as with writing, drawing, collage, etc. I found this cabinet card at a local antique mall a while ago. The elaborate wicker chair was what first caught my eye, and I was somewhat disappointed when I realized that someone had pasted Harry Truman 's head on the photo. But I ended up purchasing it anyway for the surreal—or maybe just silly—juxtaposition of presidential head and baby body. For other altered photos, see Altered Victorian Cabinet Card Portrait with Painted Skull Mask, Harrisburg, Pa. , and Does the Foreman Know about This?

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of flawed memories (photos that are damaged, faded, or have other imperfections, especially ones in which the flaws somehow enhance the image; this includes photos with defective processing, light leakage, and double exposures) . A spooky CDV with an unidentified faceless family. Perhaps their faces were somewhat washed out in the original photo, but they may also have been intentionally rubbed out afterwards. Take a gander at a cropped version of the CDV for a closer look at the family's faint facial features. For another faceless photo, see Who's the Dummy Now?

A close-up of a faceless family foursome on a nineteenth-century CDV. See also the full photo .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of photos in photos (photos that intentionally or inadvertently capture one or more photos displayed in frames, on walls, or elsewhere) . After searching all week for a photo in a photo that I hadn't already posted, I was pleased when I finally found this one in my collection. It's a cabinet card photograph of a little girl who's holding a photo in her hand as she stands on a chair to pose for a photographer named "Fordtran" who had studio locations in "Kensington, Blue Island, and Riverdale" in the Chicago area (the name and locations are embossed on the border along the bottom of the card). I cropped the photo for a close-up of the girl , and I edited and rotated a portion of the image so you can see the photo that the girl's holding . I uploaded all three files and then added them to various albums. As I was adding them to Cabinet Cards and CDVs , I decided to look through that album. That's when I discovered that I had already posted an earlier scan of this photo almost five years ago under the title, Girl Holding Photograph , along with a rotated version of the photo in her hand . So even though you may have already seen the five-year-old photo, this is a nice fresh version created specifically for the Vintage Photos Theme Park! 8) (For some reason, this silly situation reminds me of my adventures with the Cowson Farm photo.)

A close-up of the girl. See also the full photo .

A detail showing the photo that the girl is holding. For more information, see the full cabinet card photo of the girl .

A photo of jewelry (rings, necklaces, bracelets, brooches, earrings, etc.) for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Handwritten inscription at bottom: "Your Friend, Dell." A nineteenth-century CDV photo of a young woman with a distinctive hair style, stylish dress, and various items of adornment, including a headband, earrings, choker with pendant, necklace, and cross.

A beards photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Photographer: "Steinhoff, 527 Kansas Avenue, Topeka, Kansas." A cabinet card photo of a bewhiskered Midwestern fellow.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of curious photographer props (huge urns or plants, strange objects, taxidermy animals, etc.) . "Shadle & Busser, 20 S. George Street, York, Pa." A young woman poses next to a gnarly tree in the photo studio of James Monroe Shadle and Oscar W. Busser in York, Pennsylvania. Shadle & Busser operated their studio at 20 South George Street from 1887 to 1902 before moving to a different location. For other curious studio props, see Women in Ladder CDV and Rasputin and the Amorphous Enigma .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of adage illustrated (a photo illustrating a common adage—please identify the adage) . The old adage about two heads being better than one turns out to be true when it comes to a photo like this one. This is a nineteenth-century CDV showing two young women with their heads sticking out through the torn pages of a newspaper. And why did they pose like this? They were perpetuating a photographic joke that was popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. They're literally breaking the news or perhaps just looking through the paper . For other examples, see Breaking the News, Lititz Express, July 4, 1907 and Looking through the Newspaper .

A cabinet card photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park monthly topic of CDVs and cabinet cards . "Fritz, 418 N. 6th St., Reading, Pa. Extra Fine Finish." Printed on the other side: "Additional Copies of This Cabinet can be had at any time at Reduced Rates."