Daniel S. Stacey Photographs

Studio: 62 Upper Street, Islington, London - 1873 to 1892

Carte de visite photographs of three sisters wearing the fashionable clothes of 1878, They are not wearing the same dress but each have their own. Children at this time wore smaller versions of adults clothing. Note that the child stands on the same spot in each photo only the props move - this saves any repositioning of the camera - the floor would have had a mark to stand on. The actual photo print made was larger than that finally used allowing cropping to centralise the figure. Studio props: curtain, two types of chair, table, basket of flowers (always held by girls), a fan of feathers, book (I can read and write), furry rug (used for babies). The attempt seems to be to make it look like a wealthy home but it only creates a cluttered studio look. So when you look at an old photo like this consider that only the clothes worn were theirs (hopefully) everything else is a prop. The first girl rests on the table for support, the second the chair, the third has had the table moved so she can rest her back on it.

Putting a rough date: These are numbered 21776 to 21778 and is perhaps four years of numbers (since 1873) so about 4000 numbers used a year, so if you have one of these, to get a rough date divide the number by 4000 and add the result to 1873. The back design is a 'Rotating Squares' border and typical of the early backs printed by Marion Imp Paris and much used in the early 1870s, these have rounded card corners showing that it is from the later 1870s (gradual change from square corners 1876-1879). What fixes the date is the angular-cut over-skirt and swags only seen around 1878.

Below: Other clues - it says a medal of 1873, so after that date as it took time to get these printed, Marion Imp Paris is printed without the dots -.- and dashes used after 1880 - add in rounded corners (after 1876) you get a date of 1876 to 1880 or c.1878

What else can we extract from the image - this family got dressed up at home, mother did their hair and may have made the dresses, they would not have travelled far to the studio, so they probably lived in Islington. The matching dresses were made for a special family occasion perhaps the wedding of an elder sister.