A mid-Victorian lady
sits with her
baby for a professional photographer: though I can't be 100% sure, my
mother believed that the baby is my great-grandfather (on my mother's
mother's side), Edward Buckle: if so the photo would have been taken in
1856. The lady is presumably his mother, though we don't know for
certain. It is on glass, and appears to be a rare type of early photo
called an Ambrotype.
The
emulsion is on the back of the glass, and is against a black
background: if you hold the plate up to the light it appears as a very
dark negative.The colours on the flowers are hand-painted on, and the
photo is in a deep frame (as it's come apart I was able to extract the
glass plate for scanning). The glass photo (out of its frame) is 89 x
109mm (nominally 3.25 x 4.25 inches) so the image on this page is
rather larger. It's a slightly odd feeling to be able to see an
ancestor so far back - 150 years.
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