Help please dating an old family photo

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kenspeckle
Posts: 178
Joined: Sat Dec 08, 2007 6:30 am
Location: born in Glasgow now living in Huon Valley Tasmania

Help please dating an old family photo

Post by kenspeckle » Thu May 29, 2008 2:40 am

Hi All I Have uploaded an old copy of a tintype image from Our family in Edinburgh I have no idea when this was taken also the sex of the children such fancy looking clothes and hats and strange pram

http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1556

the possibles are going by looks in later photos possibly could be
Mary Ann Mercer Wilkie b 1877
Eliza Wilkie b 1879
Alexander Wilkie b 1882
Christian McKinlay Wilkie b 1884 ( this is looking most like the oldest child )
Jessie Archer Wlkie b 1887
George Barclay Wilkie b 1871

the parents were born in 1850s and father had many siblings could it even be them ?

any help very much appreciated Lesley in Tassie
researching : Roddick, Stewart, Combe,Lyle , Wilkie, Budge, Kirkwood,Howat, McKinlay, Gunning, Gumprecht, Mirrlees, Muckersie, Greig, Moncrieff, Pattison, Hornibrook, Teape, Brockhoff,Buchanan,

Currie
Posts: 3924
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:20 am
Location: Australia

Post by Currie » Thu May 29, 2008 7:04 am

Hello Lesley,
I’ll stick my neck out first,

Tintypes tend to be darkish partly because of their varnish coating but they’re very durable and were invented in the 1850s. They appear to have been introduced to the UK in the early 1870s and were still being produced during WW2.
http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/1_early/1_e ... intype.htm

That style of pram seems to have come back into fashion. I think it’s called the sports model or something like that. I’ve fallen over a few recently. The 3 wheeled contraption seems to date as far back as the 1850s according to this book published in 1874 http://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/making- ... 93-06a.jpg

The little ---- on the left appears to be wearing a bowler type hat (or maybe not) and a dress and gloves. The little ---- on the right also appears to be wearing a bowler type hat and gloves but is maybe wearing a short coat with either tight trousers or more likely something similar to knickerbockers. Corduroy velvet springs to mind and then there are the fancy lace collars. They both look like boys to me. In fact they look like the Little Lord Fauntleroy suits that became such a fashion in the USA in the late 1880s although the hats look a bit odd.
http://members.tripod.com/~histclo/faunt.html

Was Christian a boy? If so I think I would go for Alexander as the eldest with Christian and Jessie which would place the photo about 1887 and that could be in the general vicinity. You’ll probably get a better guess from someone else.

Alan

kenspeckle
Posts: 178
Joined: Sat Dec 08, 2007 6:30 am
Location: born in Glasgow now living in Huon Valley Tasmania

Post by kenspeckle » Thu May 29, 2008 7:40 am

Hi Alan
Thanks for input and the web links I put the photo on the Edinburgh web a while back but got no replies I have been trawling around and found this with a similar type of bowler for the 1870-1880 era also has the huge bows
http://tinyurl.com/5zcsw5

Christian was a girl

the only photo I have is a copy from the original which is still in UK

regards lesley
researching : Roddick, Stewart, Combe,Lyle , Wilkie, Budge, Kirkwood,Howat, McKinlay, Gunning, Gumprecht, Mirrlees, Muckersie, Greig, Moncrieff, Pattison, Hornibrook, Teape, Brockhoff,Buchanan,

WilmaM
Posts: 1920
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:46 am
Location: Falkirk area

Post by WilmaM » Thu May 29, 2008 9:11 am

I'm no help dates-wise but I love the pram.

My very trendy sister-in-law thinks she's got a cutting edge pram - along the same lines as that one :-#
Wilma

kenspeckle
Posts: 178
Joined: Sat Dec 08, 2007 6:30 am
Location: born in Glasgow now living in Huon Valley Tasmania

Post by kenspeckle » Thu May 29, 2008 11:04 am

I have some more photos of the Wilkie fam on my Picasa Album
If anyone can pick a likeness the 1891 image is he youngest
ad I think Chrissie looks like one of the ones with the pram but not sure if I am too close to it to be objective
http://picasaweb.google.com/craigsanquh ... SEdinburgh
researching : Roddick, Stewart, Combe,Lyle , Wilkie, Budge, Kirkwood,Howat, McKinlay, Gunning, Gumprecht, Mirrlees, Muckersie, Greig, Moncrieff, Pattison, Hornibrook, Teape, Brockhoff,Buchanan,

Currie
Posts: 3924
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:20 am
Location: Australia

Post by Currie » Sun Jun 01, 2008 6:24 am

Back again Lesley,

I had a good look through your very nice collection of photos but I couldn’t spot a resemblance. The 1891 photo might be displaying a bit small to get a really good idea. The three in the pram photo look like peas in a pod but possibly partly because maybe they all have a bit of a frown from looking into the sun or whatever. I was a bit surprised there weren’t many more photos of groups of children on the internet to compare them with. Perhaps there are but they’re a bit hard to find.

You’ve probably come across this site http://histclo.com/ which has loads of information but is a pay site if you want to see the photos. Just fight your way past the annoying pop ups.

There are some interesting magazines on the freebee at viewtopic.php?t=11449&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
See “19th Century UK Periodicals” including “Myra's Journal of Dress and Fashion", Title code "1SXR" which was published from the 1870s to at least 1900. You can browse each issue page by page and zoom in if necessary although I don’t really know if it will be of any help.

All the best,
Alan