Union Cases

[Guest lozzie]

Hi

Not sure I'm posting this in the correct place...but here goes!

I have been loaned some victorian photo frames from a family member....and wonder if any of you super sleuths could help me date them? one has a label inside saying "Patent American Union Cases". I have tried googling but only found 2 sites...which were useful...to an extent. Apparrently they came in 4 standard sizes, but mine don't quite fit into the sizes mentioned!

The larger case is 3 3/4" x 6 1/4" and the smaller one 3 1/4" x 3 3/4"

The photos inside seem to have been "painted" or at least the reverse of the glass photo is covered in "black paint"

Any ideas of dates??

Thank you

[Guest lozzie]

Large cover

[Guest lozzie]

Inside of large case

[RichardB]

Beautiful item, one has to ponder about the "damage" to the third picture. I think Hugh is best placed to pass coment, sorry if I'm wrong Hugh, I just have a feeling it's a dark issue and that you may have an idea. Not suggesting you're a devil-worshipper or anything, just more knowledgeable than me - about, well, everything really !

[RichardB]

Sign or wrong-doing, suicide possibly ... the child is alive.

[RichardB]

Could you photograph/scan/whatever the back please, looking for trademarks which might help date the items. No associated text/letters. Is this likely to be a Sheffield item ? Anyhistory we can have a go at ? Names, dates, family history etc ?

Thanks for posting, most intriguing ...

[Guest lozzie]

Hi Richard

Last night I also emailed the photos to a John Hannavy who has some information on Union Cases on his site. I was really amazed that he has replied today, I thought he would probably be too busy to have time to respond to my email, but I am certainly grateful that he has!

Here is the email....very intriguing!

Your two cases date from 1858-1860, and both were made in America by Littlefield, Parsons & Company. The ‘Patent American’ label was a marketing label used by LP&Co for cases sold in Britain. In those days, the word ‘American’ in the name was taken by British buyers to signify high quality!

As to the images, all are ‘ambrotypes’ - direct positive images on glass. The glass plate in the case was the actual plate in the camera, under-exposed to produce a thin negative image. The simple device of placing that on a black background, or painting the back of the plate with black shellac varnish created the positive image.

The right hand picture in the double case is a fascinating one. The device of obliterating the woman’s face might suggest she fell out of favour for some reason. This is not a natural deterioration of the plate. Quite often if a husband or wife left the marital home, they were effectively painted out of the family’s history. This may not be the case here, but again if your relative knows anything about her family’s Victorian history, it might give a clue as to who the people are.

Now we have an approx date, but we don't really know who the people are. We seem to think that it may be the Butterworth (Sheffield, Ecclesfield area) or Paine (Manchester, Sheffield) line.

I am waiting to see if my relative can remember who gave her the cases to try to work out which line they do belong to.

Its exciting to find these cases, but at the same time frustrating not being able to name the people, and find out about the obliterated woman!

Will keep you updated, when and if we resove it.

Thanks for the interest

Loz

[RichardB]

Thanks for the update - great to get more detail from a "grown up", many example of people obliterated from phtos for whatever reason; saw one on a repeat of Antigues Roadshow recently where a woman out of favour had been transformed into an armchair by scratching her out.

Please do keep us updated, and if anyone else can chip in that would be wonderful too.