Why was my forebear photographed alone?
Q I believe that this is my 3x great grandfather Charles Daniel Hammerton (1820–1888). He was a tailor living in Mortlake. I don’t know why the photograph would have been taken. His wife Ann was still alive and died in 1901, so why would he have been photographed alone? The setting suggests it was taken in a studio. Linda Kent
A This is indeed a formal studio portrait by a professional photographer. However, we only have a view of the front of the picture, not the back of the card, which may bear useful printed information indicating the studio details. The style, design and wording on the back can also confirm the format (ie the type of photograph), which aids accurate dating.
Judging from the image, this could be a postcard photograph, making the date at least 1902, but firm evidence is lacking. This gentleman poses in a contrived studio setting with a painted backcloth conveying the effect of small leaded window panes – a feature most typical of the early 1900s/1910s. The potted-plant arrangement and style of table both appear late Victorian or Edwardian. The elderly gentleman is not fashionably dressed, but conservatively attired in a mid-Victorianstyle frock coat and has a traditional mid19th-century beard, a mode occasionally worn in the early 1900s. His singular appearance cannot be pinpointed precisely: using all available evidence and in order to include all possibilities, I must date this photograph broadly to c1885–1915. Therefore, he could just possibly represent Charles Daniel Hammerton photographed shortly before his death in 1888; alternatively, he could be an ancestor from the next generation.
Jayne Shrimpton
1SETTING
The studio setting, especially the painted lead-paned window effect, is most typical of the early 1900s or 1910s. The furniture and plant pot suggest that the photo was taken in the late Victorian or Edwardian period.
2 PLANTS
Ferns and palm-like plants began to appear in studio photos during the 1880s, remaining popular into the early 20th century.
3 DRESS
Remember that elderly ancestors did not always dress in the latest fashions: this elderly gentleman’s frock coat and beard appear to be Victorian, although other features of the photograph could be later.
4 AGE
The sitter looks to be aged broadly between his mid-50s and late 60s, so he could well be your 3x great grandfather who was born in 1820.
5 APPEARANCE
His appearance, besides being ‘timeless’, also seems slightly shabby, his coat especially poorly finished. This seems surprising if he is indeed a tailor, unless he were poor.
6 OCCASION
Wider photographic evidence strongly suggests that when a mature ancestor posed alone in a studio, without a living spouse, they were celebrating a milestone birthday.