In addition to the carte-de-visite and the cabinet card, there appear to have been a significant number of other styles of cards, most likely distinguished by variations of size.
The Photographic News of 11 March 1881 refers to “the Promenade, the Malvern, the Mammoth, and several other less known pictures.”
In the Philadelphia Photographer of 1880, L M. Collins, Son & Co. Manufacturers Of Photographic Card Stock offered:
“Card, Victoria, Cabinet, Promenade, Stereoscope, Boudoir, and Imperial Mounts, furnished with Gilded Edges, and with name and address printed by lithography or letter-press.”
In 1882 A D Lewis of Newcastle and Tynemouth (qv) advertised his “Chaste New Tynemouth Promenade Carte” as a great favourite which had been adopted by all the principal photographers of the South, the Continent, and America, Cartes de Visite from 5s per dozen and “Malvern, Cabinet, Panel Portraits, and other styles taken direct from the Camera without enlarging.”
This seems to be the key – we are considering the cards that were made without enlargement. Later technology certainly allowed any size of print to be produced from any size of original.
Discussing the mammoth card of 16 by 12 inches coming from the US in 1881, Photographic News asked the question:
“… whether it would not be preferable to make such pictures by the enlargement process. We are now in a position to make small pictures direct from life quite sharp in a very short time by emulsion plates, and we can easily produce a first-rate transparent positive on glass by contact printing, and from this an enlarged negative in the camera by the ordinary collodion process. In this manner a great many pictures of moderate size (twelve to eighteen inches) are made by British and Continental photographers in the dull season, when it is difficult to work with the less actinio lenses of large size, and we must confess that the quality of these pictures, obtained in this way, is not inferior in comparison with pictures taken direct from life. Everybody in England knows that first-rate enlargements are made by the carbon process, and we think that this enlarging method is not estimated enough.”
There are a number of guides to card size online:
E. L. Russell, Pennsylvania told Philadelphia Photographer of April 1880 that as at 5 January, 1880 his prices were $3.50 per dozen for cartes-de-visite, $7 for cabinets, and $8 for promenades. However, another contributor said: “Last summer we introduced boudoirs, panels, and glace; have not had an order.” and a third:
“…my theory is that a photographer will sell just such styles as he exhibits and recommends to his patrons.”
The Philadelphia Photographer 1880
Distinguishing real variants from entrepreneurial flummery is no mean task.
Boudoir
The boudoir portrait was a mounted format measuring 5¼ by 8½ inches, unrelated to the modern boudoir photography. As such, it was appreciably more expensive than cartes-de-visite or cabinet cards. Two-thirds figure boudoir prints can be contrasted with full-length panels.
Our esteemed friend and French correspondent, Mons. Leon Vidal, sends us several boudoir portraits of actors and actresses, in character dress and pose. The pictures are very fine, and were made by A. Lumiere, Paris, by means of the electric light.
The Philadelphia Photographer 1880
Drawing-room
An albumen print from the 1880s showing a drawing room features in the Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography a woman writing at a desk in the corner of a drawing room. Its dimensions are 6″ by 8.2″ (15.2 cm by 20.8 cm).
Although apparently bigger than promenades, photographs of drawing-rooms are all sizes and it may be that a key aspect of this “size” was being horizontal rather than vertical, landscape rather than profile. The other thing to note is that a photograph of or set in a drawing-room is not a studio shot.
Malvern Portraits
The Great Malvern section of Kellys 1884 Trade Directory describes Norman May of Malvern as the originator of the popular ‘Malvern Portrait’, which has entirely superseded the older ‘Promenade’. Malvern is a spa town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England. The centre of Malvern, Great Malvern, is a historic conservation area, which grew dramatically in Victorian times thanks to the natural mineral water springs in the vicinity, including Malvern Water.
In a letter to Photographic News published on 4 March 1881 Mr May emphasised that it was “…absolutely necessary that it should be used in connection with that size mount, as calling it by any other name, or no name at all, only leads to endless confusion on the part of the customers who like the size, but do not know what to ask for, and, in a minor degree, on the part of the photographer when ordering mounts, frames, &c.”
But he didn’t say what size it was!
Gary Saretzky says they were 3.1 x 6½ inches.
Mr May was “… pleased to hear this popular size has come more rapidly into use, not only in England and America, but on the Continent, than any size since the advent of the carte-de-visite.”
Mammoth
The Mammoth Carte.— We are not sure whether the new size of portrait pictures, imported from America, about sixteen inches high and twelve inches broad, has already a name ; but we think mammoth carte would be the most convenient for them, and we imagine that this size will be the nonplus ultra, if taken direct from life. We think that our American brethren must employ a six inches lens for taking such pictures, and if larger pictures in any future time should come into fashion, the optician will be obliged to construct extra “mammoth lenses” for the purpose.
Photographic News 1881
Mignonnette
A format in France, on cardboard 4 cm by 8 cm, smaller than the carte-de-visite. It didn’t experience the same popularity.
Paris portrait
In 1881 Paris photographers Benque et Cie. assured the Photographic News that they had not produced a single carte-de-visite that year, all their works being confined to cabinets, panels, and the “Paris portrait,” a picture the same height as the panel or promenade, but half an inch broader, “… a very attractive size, but still, to our thinking, not so elegant in its proportions as the promenade…”
Promenade Cards also Panel Cards
Promenade prints and panel pictures seem to have been two terms for the same product, the key element being an elongated format. But the fact of there being two different terms suggests that there were differences; In a letter to Philadelphia Photographer of 1880 Lafayette W. Seavey of 8 Lafayette Place, N. Y. offered studio accessories including a Central Park Arch “for panels and promenades”. Meanwhile photographer W. Latour of Sedalia, Montana sent in “…a varied set of specimens of cabinet, panel, boudoir, and promenade.”
The benefit, if not the inspiration of the format, seems to have been in ladies’ dress:
If the promenade portrait has not made much progress during the past year, it has, at any rate, found a most aristocratic application. Its lengthy proportions are admirably adapted to showing off a lady’s train, and hence the fine dame who has just been presented, usually chooses the promenade format. Court, or drawing room, portrait should have been its proper name.
“…the long shape of the promenade and panel … having arisen in consequence of modern female costumes, just as the cabinet size arose in consequence of the crinoline. We prefer the new fashion of costume to the older one; but we must confess that there are many photographers who don’t know how to arrange the modern lady’s train ia a picturesque manner; as many young and elegantly-dressed ladies are arranged so as to resemble corkscrews.
“ Mrs. Abell was photographed in four positions, one C.D.V., two cabinets, and one promenade.”
The promenade or panel format dominated in Hungary and, after being called after Makart, the popular Viennese painter took firm hold also in Germany and Austria.
Edinphoto says that the panel prints were 5.¼” by 1.¾” or 8.¼” by 4” and later than promenade cards which it dates from 1875 at 7 by 4 inches. Meanwhile vintagephoto.com dates them both from 1890 and has panels at 13 by 7½ inches and promenades at 7 ½ by 4 inches – less than half.
Brett Payne at Photo Sleuth writes: “In the late 1890s and early 1900s, more or less at the same time as amateur photography was taking off, a profusion of new formats were introduced, presumably in an effort to entice customers away from buying their own cameras and back into the studio. Among these were the panel print and its smaller sibling the coupon print, which appeared shortly after the turn of the century, had their heyday between 1905 and 1915.”
twelve by tens
Julia Margaret Cameron (11 June 1815 to 26 January 1879) was an English photographer who is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She took up photography in 1864, at the age of forty-eight, having raised eleven children—five of her own, five orphaned relations, and a ravishing Irish beggar maid whom she employed as a model and married off in fairy-tale fashion to a gentleman. She taught herself to use a twelve-by-ten-inch sliding box camera and the volatile chemicals necessary to develop her own pictures. In a prolific career that lasted little more than a decade—while she was caring for an invalid husband and running a household on the Isle of Wight that was, in essence, a resort hotel for the Victorian intelligentsia—Cameron pioneered the closeup, experimented with soft focus, manipulated her negatives to produce painterly effects, and confirmed the legitimacy of the photographic portrait as a work of art.
carte Russe
This type of photography is taken directly in the darkroom. A specially shaped degrader is placed inside the darkroom, connected to the lens tube by a sliding tube, allowing the degrader to be moved further away or closer. The background against which the model stands out is dark; the model is covered as much as possible with light draperies; it is understood that on the negative there will only be a silhouette lost in a transparent background. When printed on paper there will be a degraded image, but the background will be completely black. This type is called a Russian background, without very serious reasons in our opinion.
PARIS-PHOTOGRAPHE REVUE MENSUELLE ILLUSTRÉE De la Photographie et de ses applications aux Arts, aux Sciences et à l’Industrie. DIRECTEUR : Paul NADAR SECRÉTAIRE DE LA. RÉDACTION : ADRIEN LEFORT
PARIS-PHOTOGRAPHER MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE On Photography and its Applications to the Arts, Sciences, and Industry. 1894
Vignettes
A vignette is a small illustration or portrait photograph which fades into its background without a definite border. Initially, it was not a deliberate artistic decision, but rather an inevitable outcome of camera and lens designs; Early lenses could not evenly distribute light across the entire image frame, resulting in darker corners. Over time, photographers began to appreciate and exploit this flaw for its ability to draw the viewer’s eye towards the centre of the photo. In the 19th century, vignetting was often added to portraits using darkroom techniques to create a more intimate and focused image.
Sources: THE PHILADELPHIA PHOTOGRAPHER THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES 1880; Photographic News 1881; PARIS-PHOTOGRAPHE REVUE MENSUELLE ILLUSTRÉE De la Photographie et de ses applications aux Arts, aux Sciences et à l’Industrie. (PARIS-PHOTOGRAPHER MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE On Photography and its Applications to the Arts, Sciences, and Industry.) 1894; Studio Binder
undivided-back postcards 