 |
Register Subscribe Login |
| 1. |  | Sarony 1882 Oscar Wilde Cabinet card Larry Gottheim, Be-hold, Inc Courtesy of Larry Gottheim - Be-Hold (45 / 76) The young poet against an elaborate screen background. Cabinet card copyright 1882 by Napoleon Sarony. |
| 2. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist n.d. Count Leo Tolstoi, (1828-1910) Cabinet card Jeffrey Kraus Antique Photographics Courtesy of Jeffrey Kraus (AA56) Printed on card: "Born 1828. Russian Author and Social Reformer, served in Crimean War, has published "War and Peace," "Anna Karenina," "The Krentzer Sonata," also several essays in Moral Philosophy, including "My Religion." |
| 3. |  | Jeremiah Gurney n.d. Mark Twain shaking hands with actor John Raymond who played the title role in "Colonel Sellers" which was based on the novel The Gilded Age. Cabinet card Jeffrey Kraus Antique Photographics Courtesy of Jeffrey Kraus (AA78) J. Gurney, N.Y. |
| 4. |  | Gallot 1885, 12 April Victor Hugo Cabinet card Paul Frecker Charles Gallot Paul Frecker provides the following comments: "Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was born in Besanþon, the son of an officer in Napoléon's army. Brought up in Naples, Spain and Pairs, Hugo began to write poetry and verse tragedies in early adolescence. His first collection of verse was published in 1822, and his first novel the following year. His historical novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame was published in 1831 and became an immediate success, his lyrical style and rich rhythms marking him out as the champion of Romanticism against French Classicism. In 1822 Hugo married AdÞle Foucher, the daughter of an officer in the Ministry of War. Intensely sexual his whole life, Hugo also had a life-long affair with the actress Julie Drouet, beginning in the early 1830's and only ending with her death in 1882, and there were many other affairs of shorter duration. Towards the end of his life he suffered a stroke during a liaison with his maid, Blanche Lavin. AdÞle also had affairs, most notably with Hugo's friend Saint-Beuve. In 1863 she published a biography of her husband, and died in 1868. A staunch Republican and an active politician during the Second Republic which followed the 1848 revolution, Hugo was forced to flee Paris when Napoleon III seized power and was declared Emperor in 1851. He went into exile first in Brussels, then in Jersey, and finally in Guernesy. The Emperor granted an amnesty to all political exiles in 1859, but Hugo chose to ignore the offer. His most famous work Les Misérables appeared in 1864, an epic story of social injustice which divided critics but was a huge popular success. He returned to France in 1870 when the Third Republic on the declaration of the Third Republic, witnessed the Siege of Paris, but escaped to Brussels during the Paris Commune, until he was expelled from there for harbouring political radicals, at which point he went to Luxembourg. On his return to Paris in 1876 he was a elected a Senator. He died in Paris on 22 May 1885. He was given a state funeral befitting a hero, which two million people attended, and buried in the Panthéon." |
| 5. |  | Aaron Gerschel n.d. Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) Cabinet card Paul Frecker Paul Frecker provides the following comments: "The Dreyfus Affair was a military and legal cause celebre which polarized public opinion in France between 1894 and 1906, resulting in violent public discussion, intensifying bitter divisions within society, and uncovering strong anti-Semitic sentiment. Alfred Dreyfus, a brilliant officer, became the scapegoat when it was discovered that a French officer was passing information to the German military attaché in Paris. Dreyfus, who was Jewish, unpopular, and an outsider, was convicted on forged evidence communicated to the judges behind the back of Dreyfus's lawyer. In 1895 Dreyfus was stripped of his rank in a humiliating ceremony and sentenced to life imprisonment on the infamous penal colony, Devil's Island, off the coast of South America. The Right wing press intensified its attacks on Jews, portraying the incident as evidence of 'Jewish treachery'. The matter was reopened the following year by an intelligence officer called Georges Picquart, who discovered that the leakages were continuing and traced them to an infantry officer called Walsin Esterhazy. In an attempt to hush the matter up the army transferred Picquart to Tunisia, but the matter was eventually brought before parliament and Esterhazy was formally denounced. But the army was more concerned with protecting its image than rectifying its error. Once more the military establishment succeeded in clouding the issue and Esterhazy was acquitted. However, the army's triumph was short-lived. Emile Zola published an open letter (J'Accuse!) which accused the military authorities of persecuting Dreyfus, forcing them to sue him for libel and thereby bringing the matter before the civil courts (1898). Zola lost the case and was forced to flee to England to avoid imprisonment, where he remained until he was granted an amnesty. By now the truth had begun to emerge and Hubert Henry, the man responsible for the forgeries, committed suicide after being interrogated. Amid mounting conflict between the Right (who wished to defend the army at all costs) and the Left (who felt that justice must prevail), the case was taken to the court of appeal, which ordered a new court-martial. This sat at Rennes in 1899 and the army, by playing on its special position in society, again secured Dreyfus's conviction, condemning him to ten years detention, but with a verdict of 'extenuating circumstances'. In September 1899 President Loubert pardoned Dreyfus, thereby making it possible for him to return to Paris, but he had to wait until 1906 - twelve years after the case had begun - before the case was reopened and the decisions of both court-martials quashed, after which Dreyfus was restored to his former military rank. After a short period he resigned and went onto the reserve, being later recalled to command an ammunition column during the First World War. He died in 1935. During his later years he liked to play bridge. One evening his partner commented on the news that someone had recently been arrested for espionage. Realizing the tactlessness of his remark, he quickly added that he did not suppose there was anything in it. Dreyfus, calmly dealing, replied "Oh, I don‘t know - after all, there‘s never smoke without fire." The affair, which at one point looked likely to bring about the collapse of the young French republic, eventually strengthened it. Moderate Republicans, Radicals, and socialists worked together against their common enemy, the army and the Catholic hierarchy, and in 1905, the government, emphasising the role of the Catholic leadership in the affair, succeeded in passing legislation securing the formal separation of Church and state. The photographer of this portrait is the Gerschel studio of 23, boulevard des Capucines, Paris. The Gerschel brothers began their careers as daguerreotypists in Strasbourg in 1856. In 1860 Aaron Gerschel was condemned to a month in prison for photographing an execution. Sammuel remained in Strasbourg, while Edouard moved to Nancy. From around 1885 Aaron was established in Paris at 17, boulevard St. Martin, where he was 'photographer to the Ecole Polytechnique'. Around 1900 he moved to 23, boulevard des Capucines." |
| 6. |  | T.C. Turner and Co. n.d. Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904) Cabinet card Paul Frecker Paul Frecker provides the following comments: "Welsh born US jounalist and explorer, Stanley made four expeditions in Africa. He and Livingstone met at Ujiji in 1871 and explored Lake Tanganyika together. Between 1874 and 1877 Stanley traced the course of the Congo river to the sea, later establishing the Congo Free State (Zaire) between 1878 and 1884. On his final expedition (1887-1889) he charted much of the interior." The photographer is T.C.Turner and Co. of 10, Barnsbury Park, London. Turner operated from this address between 1891 and 1900. |
| 7. |  | Louis-Jean Delton n.d. Elvira Guerra (1855-1937) Cabinet card Paul Frecker Paul Frecker provides the following comments: "A cabinet card showing the beautiful equestrienne Elvira Guerra who took part for France in the Hacks and Hunters Combined event in the 1900 Olympics in Paris, the first games in which women were allowed to compete. According to a penciled inscription on the back of the mount of this photograph, her dates were c.1855-1937 and she apparently came from a line of what I assume were circus riders. Her father was Rudolfo Guerra, and her grandfather was Alessandro "Furioso" Guerra of the Cirque de l'Hippodrome. Photographed by Jean-Louis Delton of the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, who specialized in equestrian portraiture. " |
| 8. |  | Wilhelm Höffert n.d. Josef Kainz (1857-1910) Cabinet card Paul Frecker A cabinet card portrait of the celebrated Austrian actor Josef Kainz, with whom Ludwig II of Bavaria became infatuated. |
| 9. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist n.d. Colonel W.F. Cody Cabinet card Larry Gottheim, Be-hold, Inc Courtesy of Larry Gottheim - Be-Hold (45 / 84) |
| 10. |  | Wilh. Scharmann (Berlin) n.d. George Hackenschmidt Cabinet card Larry Gottheim, Be-hold, Inc Courtesy of Larry Gottheim - Be-Hold (45 / 79) Rare physique pose of the wrestler. Vintage original period cabinet card by Wilh. Scharmann, Berlin. |
| 11. |  | Elliott & Fry n.d. Baden Powell, hero of the Boer War and founder of the Boy Scout movement Cabinet card Stereographica - Antique Photographica Courtesy of Bryan and Page Ginns (#15 / 151) |
| 12. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist n.d. James A. Garfield (Front) Cabinet card Jeffrey Kraus Antique Photographics Courtesy of Jeffrey Kraus (PR84) Advertisement for an Auction on verso |
| 13. |  | Gunn & Stuart 1897 Queen Victoria Cabinet card Stereographica - Antique Photographica Courtesy of Bryan and Page Ginns (#14 / 176) Taken at Buckingham Palace in 1897 during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of the same year. She is wearing a bracelet brooch with an Ambrotype of her beloved Prince Albert and she appears to be holding a stereo Daguerreotype. |
| 14. |  | W. & D. Downey n.d. Queen Mary wife of King George V Cabinet card Stereographica - Antique Photographica Courtesy of Bryan and Page Ginns (#15 / 150) |
| 15. |  | Jose Mora n.d. Actress Lily Langtry "the Jersey Lily" Cabinet card Stereographica - Antique Photographica Courtesy of Bryan and Page Ginns (#14 / 177) |
| 16. |  | Sarony n.d. Lilly Langtry (the Jersey Lilly) Cabinet card Stereographica - Antique Photographica Courtesy of Bryan and Page Ginns (#15 / 152) |
| 17. |  | Nadar n.d. Sarah Bernhardt Cabinet card Stereographica - Antique Photographica Courtesy of Bryan and Page Ginns (#13 / 66) |
| 18. |  | Nadar n.d. Sarah Bernhardt as Theodora Cabinet card Stereographica - Antique Photographica Courtesy of Bryan and Page Ginns (#13 / 65) |
| 19. |  | William Rulofson 1876 (ca) Men of Mark Cabinet card Larry Gottheim, Be-hold, Inc Courtesy of Larry Gottheim - Be-Hold (47 / 152) With a key on the verso to the 110 figures who visited their San Francisco studio. Quite a surprising & interesting assortment. Pride of place in the center is Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil. The final portrait is of Wm. H. Rulofson "'the' photographer." |
| 20. |  | Elliott & Fry n.d. Charles Blondin, (1824-1897) Cabinet card Stereographica - Antique Photographica Courtesy of Bryan and Page Ginns (#16/159) Born in 1924 in St-Omer, France, his real name was Jean Francois Gravelet, He died in England in 1897. Most famous for his tight rope walking over the Niagara Falls in 1855, 1859 and 1860. |
| 21. |  | Earle (Detroit) n.d. John M. Stout - Champion Fancy Star Bicycle Rider of the World Cabinet card Larry Gottheim, Be-hold, Inc Courtesy of Larry Gottheim - Be-Hold (46 / 99) |
| 22. |  | Lawson & Ferguson (Columbus, Ind) n.d. Refugio Meza, "Contorcionista Espanola," holding flags in a terrific backward position atop 3 bottles. Cabinet card Larry Gottheim, Be-hold, Inc Courtesy of Larry Gottheim - Be-Hold (47 / 174) |
| 23. |  | Gebr. Freymann (Danzig, Germany) n.d. The Sutter Brothers, (Salto cyklisten) Cabinet card Private collection of Brad Feuerhelm Willi and George Sutter were two trick cyclists. |
| 24. |  | Abraham Bogardus n.d. Chang Woo Gow (1841-1893) - the Chinese Giant Cabinet card Paul Frecker Paul Frecker provides the following comments: "Born in Pekin in !841, Chang Woo Gow (or Chang Yu Sing, as he was also sometimes called) grew to a height of something over eight feet tall. Billed as The Chinese Giant, he travelled the world, renowned for his intelligence and knowledge (he spoke six languages) as much as for his height. He finished his life the proprietor of a tea room and 'Oriental Bazaar' in Bournemouth, a resort on the south coast of England, where he was buried in 1893." Photographed by Abraham Bogardus of 872, Broadway, New York, identified recto on the mount and by his backplate. Signed in pencilled (using Chinese pictograms) verso on the mount. |