Help dating photos please

[Michael]

These two photos were among the ones we found in the course of clearing out my grandma's flat last Christmas - no-one in the family could identify them so I'm hoping to make educated guesses based on the likely dates. Can anyone help please?

(The quality of the scans isn't great, sorry about that!)

[Joan of Archives]

I would say the second one is 1850-60 ish, because of the hairstyle & sleeves. I can't see the first one that clearly but it looks like the dress is similar, possibly a little later though, around 1860-70 :)

Try comparing them to these on this site :

http://www.cartes.freeuk.com/time/date.htm

[Michael]

Thanks Joan. My grandma had had no problem identifying most of the photos, so I suspected the fact that she didn't know these two meant they were older (the others were 1880s onwards). I have a hunch the second one might be my MMMMM Rebecca Armes - born c1810, which would appear to match the date of the photo.

[Merry]

I agree with Joanie. They look like ambrotype images which went out of vogue in the mid-1860s.

[Rachel]

Is Don.t a member here ?
Barbara has buzzed off otherwise she'd be another good one to give an opinion

Michael you could always bung it on Rootschat

[Michael]

Thanks for the history lesson Merry, I'd never heard of an ambrotype!

[Joan of Archives]

Not forgetting though that sometimes elderly ladies didn't always keep up with fashion trends so they could have been wearing clothes 10-20 years old lol :rolleyes:

What are the backs like?

http://www.cartes.freeuk.com/time/time.htm shows the backs through the decades. I'm off to google ambrotype ;)

[Rachel]

I don't think Amrotypes have the conventional back like Cartes de Visite ~ they're often made with a hinged front to keep them safe

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ambrotype&hl=en&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=2ObITf_cHc_XsgbS2NCgAw&sqi=2&ved=0CDAQsAQ&biw=1012&bih=897

Do try putting it on Roots, there are people who specialize in them
You are lucky, wish I had one :);):D

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/board,298.0.html

There's also this about Ambrotypes, Daguerreotypes and Tintypes

http://www.daguerre.org/dagfaq.php

[Merry]

For what it's worth, all the ambrotypes I have are in leather or fake leather cases with a metal facing/mount around the image which is glass, and all the pictures are in reverse (at least all those with buttons!). I only have two daguerreotypes and they are very easy to tell apart from the ambrotypes as they are much more like a hologram - the image vanishes if you turn them at an angle.

But as Rachel says, I would perhaps also ask somewhere with greater expertise than here! (no offence meant to anyone else who has replied :o)

[ElizabethHerts]

FMP has an interestign blog:

http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/category/family-photos/

[Michael]

A postscript to this, a mere six years later! As I mentioned, I had a hunch as to who the second one was, but I thought I'd never be able to prove it since anyone who could have identified her is long since deceased - but as it happens, a cousin who's researching the same line has come across an old photo album which has the considerable bonus that they're all labelled! One of those in the album is clearly the same woman as the second one above - it is indeed 3g-gm Rebecca Armes (1811-1872).

[Janet]

Wow, you never know what will crawl out of the attic, do you? What a great find, Michael.