CDV: Young Italian Woman

CDV: Young Italian Woman, c. 1866-68

CDV: Young Italian Woman, backmark

Backmark: “Studio Fotografico Goriziano F. Troester Cotrada S. Giovani No. 14”

Date: c. 1866-68

Subject: Young Woman

Location: Italy

Dress: Unfortunately, years of fading and a wash of watercolor paint have obscured most of the details of this image.  Her dress is a one-piece composed of bodice and attached skirt.  The entire dress is tinted green with watercolors. The bodice is gathered, with a center-front opening and buttons.  The bodice is trimmed with U-shaped ruching.  The skirt reaches to within inches of the floor, and is trimmed about a foot from the hem with two narrow stripes.

She wears a white apron, which is an unusual accessory in photographs of this era.  Possibly it was a local convention.  When Americans are photoraphed in aprons, the aprons are almost always the decorative silk kind.

She wears a relatively small cage crinoline, a size typical for the latter half of the 1860s.

Hair:  Her hair looks like it is brushed straight back and bound up, but it is difficult to tell because of the poor quality of the photograph.

CDV: Woman from Nice

CDV: Woman from Nice, c. 1866

CDV: Woman from Nice, Backmark

Backmark: “Photographie D’Art G Echtler Rue Adelaide , 3. Avenue de la Gare Atelier au rez de Chaussee NICE Tous les cliches sont conserves”

Date: c. 1866

Subject: Woman

Location: Nice, France

Dress: This woman wears a one-piece dress composed of a bodice and attached skirt.  The fabric could be wool or silk or a mixture of the two.  The bodice is dart-fitted and closes at center front with hooks and eyes.  Decorative buttons spaced approximately 3/4″ apart line the placket.

Her sleeves are the modified pagoda style we have seen so often in this blog.  They are trimmed with narrow ribbon or braid to form a mock cuff.

The skirt is pleated, hangs about 6″ from the floor in front, and dips slightly towards the sides and back.  The hem is covered with a wool tape to prevent fraying.

She wears a thick necktie with the band exposed and relatively high on her neck.  This neck height is typical of mid-to-late 1860s fashion.  Her white collar and undersleeves match each other, with a tiny row of dots around the edges and cuff.  These dots could be contrasting ribbon woven through eyelets, but there many other possibilities for how it was done.

Her only visible jewelry is a pair of drop earrings.

Hair: Her hair is center parted and arranged in a peculiar horizontal curl or wave over her ears.  She may have matching combs and ringlets down the back, but the photograph is too unclear to see exactly what is there.

CDV: French Woman

CDV: French Woman, c. 1860

Backmark: None

Date: c. 1860

Subject: Woman

Location: Unknown. Purchased in Paris, France.

Note: I only assume this is a frenchwoman because I bought the CDV in Paris.  Nothing about her dress looks particularly French to me.

This woman wears a one-piece dress composed of a bodice and skirt, made of what is probably a heavy silk or silk/wool mix.
The bodice is darted to fit, with a pleat from shoulder to bustline.  Whether this pleat was incorporated into the shoulder seam or happened naturally is unclear, but this particular shoulder-to-bust pleat was popular from the 1840s through the 60s.  It gave an attractive, crisp line from shoulder to bust, and emphasized the hourglass shape.

The sleeves are fitted at the armscye, and open up wide at the wrist.  This shape sleeve was common in the late 1850s and early 60s, and older women wore it throughout the decade.  Modern costume historians sometimes call this a “modified pagoda”

The skirt is full and worn over a cage crinoline.

Her dress is trimmed on the bodice and sleeves with bars, probably made of a flat tape.  A white collar, undersleeves, and brooch at the neck complete the look.

She wears her hair center parted and rolled in soft puffs towards her face.  Her hair is coiled relatively high, i.e. no lower than her hairline, which indicates either an early photograph date (closer to 1859 than the mid 60s), or that she is an older woman slightly behind the current fashions.  She completes the look with a decorated hairnet with a tassel (or feather or clump of ribbons, the photograph is unclear).