cabinet photograph

Charles Mitchell

Summary

Full length portrait of 3 girls standing on the steps of a grand staircase with a decorative screen in the background. All of the girls are wearing 3/4 length wool dresses with full length sleeves and a ribbon trim. The older girl has a velvet collar and velvet cuffs. All of the children are wearing bonnets with very wide brims tied under the chin slightly to the side with long silk ribbons made into bows. Worn with black stockings and buttoned up leather ankle boots.

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.]