cabinet photograph

Summary

3/4 length portrait of a woman standing in front a of a painted studio backdrop of an outdoor scene with trees. She wears her hair pinned up with a wide brimmed hat with a small crown decorated with white flowers, black velvet and black net. She is wearing a striped wool dress with a light silk bodice with a pleated front and a standing collar. She wears an over bodice extending over her hips with an embroidered collar, full length loose sleeves gathered at the sleeve head and deep silk cuffs with an embroidered border. She wears a matching panelled skirt. She wears a necklace, spectacles and feather boa around her neck and she is wearing leather gloves and holding a striped silk parasol. Written on reverse in pencil ' Elizabeth anne / Holdship (Spinster) / godmother to / Ethel frances sargeaunt / Taken in 1906.'

Display Label

The Cunnington Collection These photographs are from the extensive archive of Drs C Willet and Phillis Cunnington, whose costume collection and library were acquired by Manchester Corporation in 1947. This purchase led to the formation of the Gallery of Costume at Platt Hall. The Cunningtons owned thousands of cartes-de-visite (small photographs, the size of a namecard you might present when visiting) and cabinet photographs (a good size to prop up for display on a cabinet) as well as later photographic prints, which he collected to show clothes worn by real people. Unfortunately the identity of the people in the photographs has often not been recorded. [Dr C W Cunnington dated many of the photographs on the reverse in his distinctive pencil/ink scrawl. While he was an early costume expert, some of his more specific dates seem suspiciously arbitrary. We have followed them here with the addition of ‘about’ to indicate that the date may be inexact.]