Saturday 30th Movember: Yokohama, Japan

In the late nineteenth century Yokohama, a port south of Tokyo, was the most international city in Japan. It features in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, although, unlike our subject today, the author never even visited the city. Much later, in 1923, much of Yokohama was destroyed and over 30,000 people killed in an earthquake. Once rebuilt it was again destroyed, this time by the Americans, in World War Two.

Seismic upheavals galore.

There is quite a tradition of Englishmen dressing up in traditional Japanese costumes for their cabinet photographs - presumably so they could send their exotic portrait home. Here we have a specimen, taken by T Enami whose Yokohama studio opened in 1892. The opening sentence of his contemporary advertisement reads: "Photographs of every description taken in my Studio daily, and special attention given to those wishing to pose in Japanese costumes."

Cabinet photograph, T Enami, Yokohama, Japan.

Friday 29th Movember: England

We need no words.

Real photographic postcard, England.

Thursday 28th Movember: Langres

I get rather over-excited when I find more than one photograph of the same person taken in the same studio at the same time. Together they can suddenly give you a sense of movement, which is something you obviously don't get from a single portrait.

In these two photographs, taken by Georges Pargon in his studio in Langres, north-eastern France, we see a fantastic pile of fake rocks moving from background to foreground; we see the same pair of gloves dangled twice from the same hand; and the same unlit cigarette posed twice between the same two fingers. The soldier's hat and dagger only feature once, as do his rather filthy shoes. And because of those shoes, I think his mother would have preferred the close-up...

Georges Pargon obviously had style - the back of his cartes are grandly elaborate. The twinned-arched gate tower he features still stands and looks much the same (I found a wonderful panorama photograph of Place Bel-Air on the web) but in front of it is now a massive car-park from where I presume you walk through those arches into the historic town centre.

Two cartes de visite, Georges Pargon, Langres, France.

Wednesday 27th Movember: Vysoké Myto, Czech Republic

Some very dapper-looking Czechs photographed by one Josef Lukes, in Vysoké Myto. I'm not sure if they are pre- or post-First World War. Are they independent Czechs or still under Austro-Hungarian rule? Most excellent moustaches, either way. And I love that we get to learn how to say postcard in seven different languages, none of them English....

Real photographic postcard,  Josef Lukes, Vysoké Myto, Czechoslovakia.

Tuesday 26th Movember: Yevpatoria, Ukraine

Yevpatoria (or Evpatoria) has been, successively, under Greek, Khazar, Mongol, Ottoman and Crimean Khanate rule. Once the Crimea was captured by Russia in 1783 it became part of the Russian Empire. For a very brief period in 1854, during the Crimean war, it was captured by the British and the French. Now it is a thriving Black Sea port and resort town in the Ukraine, which is in the news this week for trying to strengthen its ties with Europe rather than with Russia. Still then struggling to get out from under.

These may well be Greek tourists - at least the photograph ended up in a Greek stamp shop before finding its way to me and they are posed in front of a seascape instead of a formal setting. Rather grubby and on particularly thick card, the photograph gives me a strong sense of having survived many upheavals.

Cabinet photograph by Kotsenelenbogin, Evpatoria, Ukraine.

Monday 25th Movember: South African Goldfields

I went to the Jubilee Market today at Covent Garden to see Bella and Jules, wonderful purveyors of the antique, and ended up buying rather a lot of moustaches and a wonderful Welsh photograph album with a carved wooden cover from a new man from Dorset. Anyway, one of the photographs I purchased was of an entirely unprepossessing man with piggy eyes and a clipped brush of a moustache but he still makes it into today's blog because of his location - sometimes location is key. Although I have a few photographs from Johannesburg I have never had something marked the South African Goldfields. It's truly like something out of Rider Haggard.

The poor Transvaal area of South Africa was transformed in 1886 when two lucky prospectors discovered it was possibly the richest gold mining area in the world. Only two years later the Goch studio where this portrait was taken was opened in Johannesburg, remaining open for the next thirteen years, presumably fuelled by a never-ending stream of hopeful young miners.

I was also charmed when I discovered that the Jubilee Market plastic bag Jules gave me to put my photographs in features a market trader with a moustache.

Cabinet photograph, by Horace W Nicholls of the Goch Studio, Johannesburg, South African Goldfields. c. 1899.

Plastic bag, c. 2013. (Ne absiste means 'never give up' or 'do not stop'.)

Sunday 24th Movember: Wales

Cowbridge is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan, now almost subsumed by Cardiff, and here we have someone in the studio of S. Hayter - a portrait, landscape and equestrian photographer, c. 1880. I love the photographer's fake balustrade and those crisp striped trousers but am completely baffled as to what is sitting in the urn to the subject's right. A triffid? A skeleton? A pet?

Most peculiar.

Cabinet photograph, S. Hayeter, Cowbridge, Wales.

Saturday 23rd Movember: India

Here we have some polo-playing swells stationed in India with the 3rd R.B. or Rifle Brigade. From left to right, Bell, Morris, Creed, Gosling and Bell. I have found a list of those who won medals with the 3rd Rifle Brigade on the Punjab Frontier in 1897-8 and four of our strapping young men are on the roll-call  - Lieutenant M G E Bell, Lieutenant Hon. G H Morris, Lieutenant G B Gosling, and Lieutenant E W Bell. There is no mention of Creed, however, the most handsome of our five men, staring off into the distance at the back.

So I do some more research and, lo and behold!, crikey!, Percy Redfern Creed has his own bloomin'  Wikipedia page. After serving in India with his polo-playing friends he had an astonishing career - from the House of Commons to the staff of The Times newspaper to Chief of Staff to Lords Cromer & Roberts; back to the Rifle Brigade for the First World War, becoming Kitchener's Personal Representative and consorting with the King and the Prime Minister, and then, war over, off to America to study 'methods of organisation' as a special consultant in Washington. Finally, rather dramatically, having written a book called How to get things done, he became a sportswriter, creating the Sportsmanship Brotherhood. It's creed is very apt for our photo today:

Keep the rules;
Keep faith with your comrades, play the game for your side;
Keep yourself fit;
Keep your temper;
Keep from hitting a man when he is down;
Keep down your pride in victory;
Keep a stout heart in defeat accepted with good grace;
Keep a sound soul and a clean mind in a healthy body.

I'm not really sure that these five are quite managing the keeping down of pride in victory part...

On the reverse of the photograph are, I presume, the entire 3rd Rifle Brigade, musicians and all. Click on the photos for a closer look.

Albumen photographs, India c. 1898.

Friday 22nd Movember: Montbazin, Herault

In France, April Fool's Day is celebrated in a different fashion to England. Rather than rabbits and hares, fish are the order of the day. Children and adults alike pin paper fish to the backs of unsuspecting victims and shout "April Fish" or "Poisson d'Avril". Many late nineteenth and early twentieth century French 'fantaisie' postcards feature April Fish.

But why do we all celebrate April 1st?

In most European towns New Year's Day used to be celebrated on March 25th (the Feast of the Annunciation) with a week long holiday ending on April 1st. When, by the mid 16th century, the calendar was altered and New Year's Day became the 1st January, those who still celebrated with the holiday ending on the 1st April were 'fools'...

Here's one of my Poisson d'Avril favourites, sent from Montbazin in Languedoc-Roussillon in 1911.

Thursday 21st Movember: London

Whilst Monica Galetti and Michel Roux Junior are terrifying chefs nightly on Masterchef: The Professionals it seems appropriate to single out today's subject: one Molinari Fontonio, a Masterchef of years gone by.

I bought this postcard from the lovely Bella at Spitalfields Market many moons ago now when there was still a thriving Antiques Market on Saturdays in Islington. This is the only clue I have to the postcard's origins. It might portray an Italian chef working in London but there are no actual clues to his location.

Look carefully and you'll spot his recipe book, a dangerous-looking cleaver and some other tools of the trade.

Real photographic postcard.

Wednesday 20th Movember: Kiel, Germany

Since 1882 the largest sailing event in the world has been held every year during the last week of June in Kiel, Germany. Nowadays 5,000 sailors, 2,000 ships and three million visitors converge on the harbour for a week of races, tall ship displays and concerts from grandstands across the City.

Back in June 1914 Kiel Week was abruptly interrupted by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the subsequent onset of World War 1. Kiel immediately reverted to its role as Germany's main naval base and here we have three of Germany's finest sailors, from HMS Schwaben, readying to do battle with a plastic baby, wooden pig, wooden stork, toy pram and woollen dog...

Das fidele Kleeblatt written on the sign at the sailors' feet translates literally as The jolly Clover but in this instance means the jolly trio. I cannot imagine their jollity lasted for the rest of the war but we can hope.

Real photographic postcard, Kiel, September 1914.

 

Tuesday 19th Movember: Toledo, Idaho

Toledo is known as the Glass City because of its long association with aspects of the glass industry - from prosaic windows and bottles to glass art now proudly displayed in the Toledo Museum of Art. Perhaps our man today was an expert glass-blower, although his impressive moustache might have made such an occupation a distinct impossibility...

Cabinet photographs with a dark background like this are much rarer than those with the normal light background and are particularly striking.

Cabinet photograph by Hassell of Toleda, Iowa, USA.

Monday 19th Movember: Vienna, Austria

Some more athletes, this time members of the Wien Dornbach Schwer Athletik Club of 1900. A couple of them unfortunately didn't get the memo about moustaches but they are rather decoratively adorned with medals. The third man from the left, being especially bouffant, is no doubt the envy of his companions, particularly the man on his left. Note the fur throw and the fact they are all wearing suspenders on their manly calves.

Albumen photograph taken by Alfons Piksa, Vienna.

Sunday 17th Movember: Kettering

I'm not sure what is going on here. It's all a little bit Carry on Up the Khyber. Presumably this man is military of some kind but, despite being photographed in Kettering, Northamptonshire, he looks as if he's wearing a hat for colonial service in South Africa or some such place. His certainly doesn't look like a regulation English uniform. Kettering, however, was also known as a base for the Christian missionary movement in the 19th century - perhaps our man is off to wilder climes in search of souls to save. After all, his uniform has no distinguishing numbers or badges. I know there are many people out there, military experts all, who will know immediately what this man is about. Perhaps they will stumble across this post and be kind enough to tell me one day.

Whether he's pacifist or aggressor, he has very, very finely pointed wax tips to his moustache and could feasibly run someone through with a single toss of his magnificent head....

Cabinet photograph by Whitehead of Kettering.

Saturday 16th Movember: France

Back to France where they had a fine line in 'fancy' or 'fantaisie' postcards during the First World War and beyond. All of them, almost without exception, feature men sporting fine moustaches.

Modes of transport were quite a favourite for 'fancy' cards: trains, balloons, aeroplanes, bicycles. Rarely, though, cars.

But here we have Charles, a most up-to-date young man, wishing René a Happy New Year for 1913 from the seat of his French automobile. Let's hope he survived the upheaval of the next few years...

It's a mystery to me how these particular postcards got to where they were supposed to be going - both cards are stamped but neither addressed....most peculiar.

Two postcards, 1912.

Friday 15th Movember: Pola, Croatia

Located about eighty miles down the Istrian coast from Trieste, Pola, at the turn of the twentieth century, was the Austro-Hungarian Empire's main naval base. James Joyce lived here from 1904 in a flat opposite the Berlitz School where he taught English, right next to the photographer's studio where the portrait below was taken. Perhaps he met Guglielmo Fiorini, the photographer, in his studio at the Palazzo Stefano.

Joyce referred to Pola as a 'naval Siberia', complaining of the bitterly cold winter of 1904-5, and he and his wife Nora, newly pregnant, left for Trieste in the following March. I look at this portrait and like to imagine that it is of a colleague of James Joyce at that Croatian language school at the turn of the twentieth century.

Pola is now called Pula and is especially known these days for its mild climate, such are the effects of climate change...

Carte de visite with (and its extremely rare for these to be intact) protective sleeve, Pola, Croatia.

Thursday 14th Movember: Slovakia

In 1903, when this wonderful photograph was taken, Slovakia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary and Postyen was the Hungarian name for what is now Piest'any, the biggest and best Spa town in Slovakia. Its visitors have included Beethoven and a series of various European monarchs.

Here we have Oberlieutenant Faby, Lieutenant Vogel, Lieutenant Hrusowsky and Oberlieutenant Pelz - or at least that's all I can make out pencilled on the back of the photograph. And out of all the thousands of cabinet photographs I have, this is one of the very best.

Large cabinet photograph. M Stern & Son. Postyen, Slovakia.

Wednesday 13th Movember: Canada

I can't remember where I bought this from but I am pretty certain it was from Canada or the States. Scribbled faintly on the back in pencil are the words: 1904 Swanson. So we know who it is and when but not, unfortunately, where.

In these days of ever-increasing fuel prices, Swanson is perhaps showing us the way to go, were it not for the ever-decreasing numbers of wildlife the world over. Rabbit fur might still be acceptable but who knows what his coat is made of. Best not to ask. Just admire the style and that pert moustache.

Small cabinet photograph, 1904. Click on the photo for a closer view.

Tuesday 12th Movember: Paris

We tend to think of the English as being the bowler-hatted type. But here we have four Parisians sporting bowler hats - and then, wonderfully, not sporting them.

This is from Edwardian times but as they are French, and have no King, they are no Edwardians. What then are they called? What do the French call that period in history? Answers on a postcard please.

The back row have the best moustaches by far, obviously. Click on the pictures for a closer view.

Monday 11th Movember: Tlemcen, Algeria

Pronouced Tilimsan, Tlemcen is in northwestern Algeria. During colonial rule it became a popular place for the French settlers to visit on vacation and, adapting to this new urbanity, the city became extremely cosmopolitan "with a unique outlook on art and culture". Here we have a Frenchman who seems however, judging by the enormous sword at his side, not to be on holiday. Indeed, patterned borders on cabinet cards like this often indicate that the sitter has died - they are memorial photographs. Hence the flowers. Or sometimes they are a celebration of some kind. In this instance we will never know quite what the border signifies.

Cabinet photograph, N Jouve & ses fils, Tlemcen, Algeria.

Sunday 10th Movember: Marathon, New York

If you google Marathon, New York these days you, of course, get reams of entries for the annual running race in which the worthy and the foolish run side by side for glory. Back in the 1870s, however, Marathon, New York meant simply the town of Marathon, named thus in 1828 but first settled way back in 1794. The town, still extant, is crossed by the Tioughnioga River which is a native word for the "meeting of waters." Imagine then this town in the late 1870s, and at the meeting of the waters a meeting of three men, newspaper men all, who convene in a bar for a quick invigorating brandy before heading over to Cortland Street to get their collective photo taken at Minard's Fine Art Gallery. Feeling pretty flush, they order themselves some hand-tinted cabinet cards for each of their wives alongside a batch of the more ordinary photographs for clients, before heading back to their office and to the more serious business of publishing a newspaper and, hopefully, making some money along the way...

Hand-tinted cabinet photograph. Marathon, New York, USA.

Saturday 9th Movember: Galatz

Today's issue: does size matter? Should I go for the ostentatious look or be subtle? Decisions, decisions....

And here we have opposite decisions made at the same moment some time in the 1880s in Galatz, Romania.

(Galatz was the German name for Galati which is now the eighth most populous city in Romania, perched on the Danube in the region of Moldavia.)

Large cabinet photograph (often called a 'boudoir' cabinet card).