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History of Science Museum

Two Photographs (Ferrotypes) in One Case, of a Man and of a Woman and Child, c.1858

Inventory Number 25494


Acknowledgement: © History of Science Museum, University of Oxford, inv.25494

Item type
Object
Provenance
Purchased from R. S. Clay in 1944. Part of the Clay Collection.
Primary inscriptions
Printed case-maker's label in case behind right-hand photograph, of Littlefield, Parsons & Co., citing patents of 1856 and 1857 (for union cases).
Object type
Photograph
Dimensions
Height: 107mm Width: 82mm
Inventory No
25494
Accession Number
1944-1

Description

The case contains two photographs, both collodion positives on metal (ferrotypes or tintypes).

Left: a man, seated three-quarter length, facing front, his right arm resting on a table.

Right: his wife and child, the woman seated three-quarter length, facing front, holding an infant on her lap to left, the child looking awake and alert (probably a boy judging from the hair and pink frock).

Both are selectively hand tinted (chiefly the man's tablecloth turquoise and the child's dress pink), the woman including gold. Elaborately decorated gilt brass oval matts. Union case with heavy relief design front and back (grapes, leaves, etc.), with oval centre. Two hinges and two pressure clasps. Printed label of the case maker Littlefield, Parsons & Co. inside the right-hand recess of the case.

Compare 13164.