1940s GLAMOUR

This is a very large print: 11" x 14". It, along with a large box of photos, was a gift from a friend at Christmas.

I have no information about the woman in this photo or who took it. It's obviously a glamour shot, most likely taken in the '40s. Was this a wife's pinup to send to her husband?

Unlike the glamour shots of today, which often look just a little too tacky, this is done in the style of George Hurell. Done in the style, but in no way captures the magic that he did. Take a look at Hurell's work, especially similar ones, and you'll find that this one is a bit confusing. The photo was taken as a horizontal, but turned horizontal it just looks weird. Well, it looks weird either way. At least with the vertical she's making eye contact. Look at the shots Hurell took of Bette Davis and Veronica Lake. They make sense as horizontal images.

Now look at this one horizontal.

I think her chin should have been lifted up more allowing a better gaze into the lens. But then I'm just being picky. I imagine the woman, and any recipient, must have been thrilled. It is a lovely shot, but it could have been so much more.

And if I'm going to be even more picky, I think the photographer should have touched up the shot by taking out whatever the heck that is on her sleeve. It's really annoying.

This is what I came up with for Sepia Saturday after being gone for so long. Just as the Sepia Saturday selection is a little "off" so is this one. 

I have missed participating and I'm happy to see it is still up and running. I appreciate the work put in to keep it going.

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DALZELL STEELWORKS in Motherwell, Scotland

My paternal grandfather worked at the Dalzell Steelworks in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland. His father worked at the steelworks. As I recall I had other relatives who also worked there. The other thing that ties all of them together is they all immigrated to California in the 1920s; not one of them ever returned to Scotland.

Click on image to see it larger.

My grandfather is in this photo. I'm not sure if any other relatives are in it. Within a few months my grandfather set off with a few of his brothers for North America. His father, mother, sister, and fiancé followed a year later. All of that would be unremarkable except for the fact that my grandfather's great-great-grandfather had arrived in North America almost exactly the same day one hundred years earlier settling in Canada. Until last year none of my family knew anything about this. I'm still fascinated to find that I had relatives arrive in 1821 and 1921.

As to the Dalzell Steelworks, I can say very little. I remember driving by it in the early 1970s on a trip to Scotland. By that time it had been open for a little over one hundred years. It was closed in 2015, but reopened in 2016.

David Colville & Sons, a Scottish iron and steel company, was founded in 1871 and it opened its Dalzell Steel and Iron Works at Motherwellin 1872. By the first World War, it was the largest steel works in Scotland and it continued to expanded afterwards taking over a number of other steel works in Cambuslang and Glengarnock.

Nationalised in 1951, it became part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain. It was privatised in 1955 and the construction of Ravenscraig steelworks resulted in the closure of a number of its other works. It was renationalised in 1967, becoming part of British Steel Corporation. (Source: Wikipedia)

There was a rumor on my mother's side of the family that we had some sort of connection to Bethleham Steel in Pennsylvania. I've never been able to prove this.

I personally can't imagine working in a steel mill, but then I also can't imagine being a coal miner and I have many ancestors from Scotland who made their living in the mines. I relate more to the Scottish ancestors who worked looms and made hats. What on earth would any of these people think of the way I've made my living working for myself for all but one year of my professional life? I imagine they'd think me soft and lazy. They'd be right.

This is my submission for Sepia Saturday this week. I've been away for a long time.

The SERIOUS FAMILIES little dancer

If you've been visiting this place the past few years you will be aware of the Serious Family consisting of a mother and three children. To see the other posts click on the word "serious" in the labels below.

Here I give you the lovely little daughter in some sort of costume. I'm guessing it was for a dance recital, but I'm open to other suggestions.

It was nice finding one of the children again.

Click on image to see it larger.

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A Wonderfully Strange VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS

Wishing my fellow Sepian's a wonderful holiday season, and that includes those who visit but don't participate.

And now the final intact Victorian Christmas.

Click on image to see it larger.

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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 8 available at Amazon.

SNIFFLES for Christmas

Unfortunately I've been hit with a nasty cold right when I needed my energy most. No tree. No cookies. Most presents not bought and shipped. And I'll be frank, I worry this is the last Christmas with my father. Can't complain. Mine is just an inconvenience. But dang!

So no real participation in Sepia Saturday this weekend, but I wanted to make sure I posted part three of the Victorian Christmas image.

I give you a young Paul Simon and Paul McCartney. No idea what's going on. Who'd have thought these Time Traveling Celebrities would be caught as children?

The HAUNTED BRIDEGROOM

Seriously, when the preacher said "Do you take this man..." did the bride look into these eyes and think, "Ummmmm...maybe not."

I've never seen eyes like his; they're almost skeletal. And the fact that the bride looks like my best friend's youngest son just adds to the strangeness.

Click on image to see it larger.

I'm betting the wedding party was pretty wild. What do you think? Don't even get me started about what happened at the bachelor party!

This is my first wedding photo for this month's Sepia Saturday prompt. More to come.

This photo is from Tattered and Lost: Telling Stories.

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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

JANICE Always Got What She Wanted

I have no idea what this little girls name was. I've named her Janice because there was always a Janice and she looks like a Janice.

Oh to be able to have listened in when her parents had the discussion of her posing for a portrait and she insisted on wearing her cowgirl outfit and gun.

She looks so normal in the first four shots, but by the fifth she's starting to look a bit loco. By the sixth she knows she's won.

This little buckarette is my submission for Sepia Saturday this week. Just a silly child's portrait I shall call "A Portrait of Janice."

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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

Just BECAUSE...

 they're so doggone cute.



This dynamic duo are from the Betty Schnabel estate. It's a little portrait from her mother's family album. No idea who the kids are.
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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

The SERIOUS FAMILY CUTS LOOSE!

Finally, a bit of fun.

Click on image to see it larger.
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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

More of the SERIOUS FAMILY

The antique store was having a sale so I perused the box I had perused so many times before. I managed to find a few snapshots I had missed on previous trips. Minor excitement when I found this photo of the kids from the Serious Family.

To see past images of these oh so serious children click on "serious family" in the labels below.

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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

The VERY SERIOUS FAMILY at Home

Like I said before, pay attention to the flooring with these folks.


Click on image to see it larger.

I wish I had names for these gorgeous kids. I also wish I could have seen them smile.
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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

The VERY SERIOUS FAMILY

Was there someone out of sight saying, "Smile kids! Come on, smile!"



I'm beginning to think it's the flooring. Yup, the flooring is causing the problem.
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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

More of the SERIOUS FAMILY

Then there were three. And poor little fella left the barn door open.

Click on image to see it larger.

Pay attention to the flooring in all photos.

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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

The SERIOUS FAMILY

In November of 2014 I posted the following two photos. On the first day I posted this portrait of the pretty woman. The next day I posted a photo of two children that I assume are hers because they look so much like her. The children always look a bit confused.





So a year and half later I find more photos of the children. They never smile.


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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

The EYEBROW

Another couple on a couch. Have we seen them before?


Click on image to see it larger.

I didn't notice the eyebrow had been drawn on until I enlarged the image.


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Tattered and Lost: Forgotten Dolls

This one is for those who love dolls!

And so the COUNTDOWN BEGINS with Charlette's Friends

I'm assuming these ladies are friends of Charlette, perhaps visiting Charlette's home. It's all so wonderfully 1950s. I feel right at home.


Click on image to see it larger.
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New book available on Amazon in a few days.
Tattered and Lost: Forgotten Dolls

This one is for those who love dolls!

TEENS

I have no idea if any of these girls are the women featured in other photos. I'm guessing old friends of Charlette.

Click on image to see it larger.

________________________

New book available on Amazon in a few days.
Tattered and Lost: Forgotten Dolls

This one is for those who love dolls!

SHARP DRESSED Family

I like to imagine they were at Charlette and Edgar's wedding.


Click on image to see it larger.
________________________

New book available on Amazon in a few days.
Tattered and Lost: Forgotten Dolls

This one is for those who love dolls!

The FAMILY PORTRAIT + House

Sepia Saturday's theme is a Victorian family portrait. I'm sure if I really thought about it I'd find a portrait worthy of the theme. Instead, with nothing coming to mind, I'm taking the theme in a slightly different direction.

Portrait photography was generally done inside with a studio background. I'm not sure when it became popular to have the family pose in front of their home. It's a category that I jokingly call The American Dream.

Were the photographers just passing through in a wagon offering to take the family photo? Or did the photographers come out from town?

I especially enjoy the photo below because the house is so very much part of the portrait. A happy little house, eyes wide open, mouth open beckoning all to enter (or a dark hole ready to suck them in). It looks indeed to be a small house which had the family bursting at the seams; nine people in that house. Granted, we don't know how far back it went, but I'm guessing it was about as deep as it was wide. Of course it is possible that some of the relatives just showed up for the photo shoot, but we'll never know.


Click on image to see it larger.

It's a fun category to collect, but also an expensive one. That's the main reason I have collected so few. I try to generally find unusual ones that tell a story. In more than one I'm convinced the daughter in the family ran away with the photographer. At least I'm hoping they did; struck out for some adventure. Their version of running away with the circus.

In a house with nine I'm guessing every day was a bit of a circus.

TRANSLATION, s'il vous plaît

I don't speak French. I took German in high school. I was forced to take Spanish in junior high. I don't speak either language. I'm not sure it's the education system that is at fault or the way my brain is wired. I can pretend to speak different languages, I can mimic the sounds, but when it comes down to learning the actual languages it becomes too similar to trying to do math. I am not wired for math. I am not wired for anything where a specific answer is required. I like options.

My option for this week's Sepia Saturday is way off topic. I don't collect photos of hotels (this week's theme), but I do have a lot of posts on my ephemera site dedicated to old hotels and motels. A couple of examples of old San Francisco hotels are here and here.

Instead I'm going to do a bit of crowdsourcing because I know Sepians are a very diverse group and there is certainly at least one who can speak French.

This image was purchased many years ago in Eureka, California. I will always wonder the route this portrait took to get there.


Click on image to see it larger.

It's a fascinating shot of children far too close in age. The mother was just popping these little infants out one after another. Was her name Boulangerie?

So, getting down to the requested facts…what does it say on the back?


Click on image to see it larger.

Though what I have is very old, it is not the original print. The reason I know this is because of the boy in the upper right corner. If you take a look you'll notice that someone did a bit of photo shop-erie with another print, a knife, and some glue. That little boy was in the original shot, but for some reason a replacement of him was put on top. So somewhere there was an original with the cut and paste job and what I have is a shot of the shot.

So let us ponder why this little boy was such a problem. Perhaps he shut his eyes just as the shutter closed and the photographer, not wishing to bring the wrath of Boulangerie down on his head, said, "Madame, I will fix it immédiatement! No charge…of course."

What other options could have caused this photography disaster? Imagine how the photographer of today would say, "Don't worry your little head. I will have this fixed in a peu de moments" then run off to his laptop.

I am hoping someone will fill in the pieces provided on the back of this photograph from 1884.

And in advance I say merci.

UPDATE: Thank you Linda for the translation:

...the message says: loving remembrance (or amicable memory) to the friends (if it says "ses"), or "his" friends (if it says "les").

UPDATE: From Brett:

Affectionate memories to his friends
Germain Deseudi
Mezin le 9 8th 1884

Mezin is a small village in south-western France (Aquitaine). The photograph looks to me as though it could have come from there. 

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Tattered and Lost: The Quiet Art of Reading