Cabinet Card: 1870s Amelia van Strandres

Backmark: Houston  307 King Street S.C.  [handwritten: “Amelia Vans——-“]

Date: c. 1870s

Subject: Portrait of a woman

Location:  Houston, S.C. [Note: There is a Houston in North Carolina, about 8 miles from the South Carolina border.  I wonder if the boundary has changed since the 1870s?]

Dress:  Silk, probably a solid-colored taffeta.  There is a decorative square inset at the front neck of the bodice.  I am not sure, but I think it is probably just piping basted onto the bodice to give the illusion of being a separate piece.  The mid-height standing collar is a darker color from the bodice.  Perhaps velvet?

She wears a heavily pleated white collar inside the dress collar, and a bow tacked or pinned at the neck.  A black lace fichu or necktie is pinned over everything.

Jewelry: She wears hooked earrings, rather large and probably metal.  There is a chain looped around her neck.  I’m not sure if it is a necklace or a fob.

Hair: This style is really magnificent and undoubtedly required extra hair.  The rolls on top are probably fake (real human hair, but purchased in the pre-rolled form), as is the mass of hair just visible in a coil behind the bow.  I suspect that the long curls are real.

I don’t know much about this period, I’m afraid.  If you can make any corrections, please do.

Tintype: c. 1870, young woman in sheer dress

Backmark: None

Date: c. 1870

Subject: Seated young woman

Location: Unknown

Note: I’m really not sure about the date of this tintype. This style of ruched bodice was especially popular from around 1865 through the early 70s, and the dropped armscye suggests a date closer to 1865, but loose hair is an 1870s fad, as far as I know. I’d appreciate any leads on comparanda to date this better.

Dress: This young woman wears a sheer dress over an opaque underdress. The bodice is shirred over tiny cords, and appears to be only on a yoke, ending at about bust level. The sleeves are long and full, coming from a dropped armscye and ending in a ruffle at the cuff. There appears to be decorative piping (tubes of fabric applied to the surface, not filled with cord) at the front yoke, armsyce, and cuffs. The jewel neckline of the dress is finished with a dark lace frill and a bow with flowers of some sort- possibly wax buds.

The underdress is probably entirely separate from the outer dress, and made of silk taffeta. I have seen several extant examples of this kind of dress, but never in any color but white. The ensemble she wears may be black, or another color that photographed dark, such as red. All of the extant dresses I have seen have been plain white organdy, but because this one is colored it may be silk.

Her skirt is not visible, but based on originals I have seen it probably consists of a skirt with a small train, and an overskirt which has been gathered up to form a polonaise, bustling out at the back.  She would wear a cage crinoline with a small bustle pad in back

Jewelry: She wears a black choker pinned at the throat with a metal brooch.

Hair: Her hair is worn faddishly loose and side-parted. To the contemporary viewer, she probably would have looked rakish in the free-spirited way that young women often do. When worn by women, the side-part had for decades prior carried an association with radical ideas and masculine bravura. Loose curls, likewise, signified a free spirit, compared to the tight, slicked-back buns that were worn since the late 1830s.

Tintype: Girl in Hat

Tintype: Girl in Hat, c. 1865-70

Backmark: None

Date: c. 1865-70

Subject: Young Woman

Location: Unknown

Dress:  This young woman wears a bodice trimmed with ribbon in a large geometric pattern.  It is unclear whether the buttons are functional or decorative.  She wears a ribbon necktie that is either pinned to a high collar or forms the collar itself.  She wears no visible jewelry.

Hat & Hair:  Her hair is pulled straight back from her face and arranged in a vertical oval-shaped roll at the back of her head.  She wears a stylish hat, probably made of straw or woven straw and horsehair.  The low, flat-topped crown sits straight on her head, while the narrow brim comes to a point in front just over her eyebrows.  The hat is trimmed with ribbon and silk or wax flowers on the side.

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: Woman in Silk with Watch

CDV: Woman in Silk with Watch, c. 1860

Backmark: None

Date: c. 1860

Subject: Seated Woman

Location:Unknown

Dress: This dress is probably made of silk taffeta, one of the most popular fabrics for dresses in the early 1860s. The bodice is darted and opens in front, as nearly all dresses of the time do (for women. Girls’ dresses open in back). The sleeve is a version of the “modified pagoda,” as it is known to modern costume historians. A wavy edge winds its way from the front of the shoulder to the wrist. There may be a series of pleats at the top of the cuff, which serves to gives the sleeve a attractive upward curve. The skirt is gathered or gauged, and trimmed with a deep box-pleated flounce of self-fabric. The only other trim on the dress is ribbon or braid on the sleeve.

Accessories: She wears a flat, white collar about 1.25″ in width. A necktie made of ribbon is penned at her throat. Her pocketwatch is suspended from a chain around her neck and tucked into a ribbon belt. Her undersleeves are fitted at the wrist, with a narrow ruffle over the hand and gathered fullness in the arm. The undersleeves close with visible buttons (or, the buttons may be decorative, and the undersleeves may close with a hook and eye. She wears a lot of jewelry, including three visible rings, dangling earrings, and what appears to be a thin, dark necklace at the base of her neck (or this may be a looping of the watch chain)

Hair: Center parted and combed down to form a slope across the sides of her forehead and smoothly behind her ears. Bound in back in a coil, and covered with a decorated hairnet.

CDV: Sisters

CDV: Girls (sisters) c. 1864-66

CDV Girls (sisters) backmark

Backmark: “BAIRD & JESSUP, PHOTOGRAPHERS, Main St. Middletown, N.Y.” 2 cent “Playing Cards” stamp, blue.

Date: c. 1864-66.

Subject: two girls aged about 9-13.

Location: Middletown, NY

Note: These girls are probably sisters, based on their matching skirts.

Left girl:
Wears a printed bodice with very low armscyes, full sleeves pleated into the armscye and pleated or gathered into cuffs. The bodice opens in front, and the fullness at the waist is gathered into a waistband.

The bodice is trimmed with soutache sewn in what appears to be a figure 8 pattern, matching her sister’s. The soutache covers the front placket, the waistband, and the cuffs. She wears a short, ruffled standing white collar based into her bodice, and a narrow neck ribbon tied in a bow at center front.
Her skirt is pleated into a waistband hidden by the bodice waistband. There appear to be tucks near the hem of the skirt..

Her shoes are not visible.

Her hair is parted in the enter and pulled back into a low style, covering her neck. She wears a hairnet with a decorative ribbon bow at the top.

Right Girl:
Dress is similar, and only differs in the following ways:
Bodice is of a plain fabric, and closes up the front with visible buttons. Soutache flanks the placket on either side. Her boots are leather, lace up the front, and are probably tipped with black patent-leather.

CDV: Close Curls

Close Curls, c. 1863-67

J.J. Boyton Clinton, Mass.

This woman’s clothing appears uninteresting at first glance, but a closer inspection will reveal some unusual details of mid-1860s fashion.

She wears a one-piece dress composed of a bodice and attached skirt. The fabric is probably wool. Her bodice is dart-fitted, with a row of functional buttonholes closing center front. There are eight visible buttons, in a contrast color to the fabric. She has a short standing detachable white collar, and wears a light-colored neck-bow. The strap is just barely visible around her neck. She wears a dark belt, approximately 1.25″, with no visible buckle.

Her sleeves are pleated into a decorative seam down the top. The seam may be covered with braid or some other trim, the photograph is unclear.

Her cuffs are noteworthy: They are slightly conical and pointed on the top edge, with two decorative buttons. The question is over the material- are these black leather? Spectacularly shiny satin? Cuffs like these show up occasionally in photographs, often enough and randomly enough that they could not have been simply a localized fad. I have never come across anything like them in museum collections. Does anyone have any information?

Her skirt is also noteworthy. The wide box pleats at center front and side seam(s) are typical of the mid ’60s, but note the three smaller pleats radiating out from each. The hem of her skirt appears to be box-pleated with the same fabric as the rest of the dress. I wonder how those pleats are attached? It appears that the flounce is sewn right-sides-together, but this construction is not typical for the time period. A pleat topstitched on with a short header is more common. If you have seen an original like this, please comment below.

Finally, her hair, which I consider also noteworthy. It is center-parted, combed smooth for about two inches, and then erupts into a dense but controlled mass of curls on either side of her head. I cannot tell whether her hair is cut short, which was faddish in the late 1860s and early 1870s, or if the sides were let to curl naturally and then combed into a low back bun.