CDV & Cabinet Photography Studios Question

Hello, if a CDV or cabinet has a photography studio/photographer name/emblem printed on the front or back of a photo, is it certain that the photo was taken at the studio listed on the photo? For instance, if I have a photo that lists a studio in New York, NY, is it possible that the photo was taken at a affiliated studio say in Philadelphia, PA? If so, how common was that in the 19th century? Thanks in advance!

 

Would you be kind enough to post a photograph of the photograph in question?

Debora

 

It is not always certain, but the vast majority were taken in the studio listed. A few possible reasons that a card mount could have have an imprint of a studio that didn't take the photo:

1) Some images were basically pirated and reprinted by other studios. Especially if the photo is of a famous person. Some of these reprints don't include a studio name, especially if they were doing it without permission. And sometimes reprinted pictures will have an indication of who took the original photo, even if printed by a different studio.

2) Some photos could have been reprinted by an affiliated studio. Not sure what you mean by affiliated, but I'm talking about studios with the same owners, in two different cities.

3) Sometimes photos were reprinted in later years by the same studios that originally took them. Sometimes the studio will have the same owner and sometimes the ownership has been passed on to somebody else. I have an example of the latter in my collection. You may have seen the notes on the back of many 19th-century photos that say something like "Negatives preserved." This is so they can make reprints for people who ask for more copies.

There are other reasons for reprints, too. Perhaps a family had a copy of a photo that was taken in a different place, but they went to their local photo studio for reprints. Since the new studio wouldn't have a negative, I believe they just photographed the older photo and cropped it to put on a card mount.

4) Oh! And I recently saw an interesting presentation by some photo sellers and collectors who talked about fake CDVs and cabinet photos that were made in the modern era. There are people now who will grab a collectible image, let's say of a Native American, from the web and reproduce it so it looks old/sepia, etc. Then glue it to an old cabinet card mount from a place that has nothing to do with the original image. The presenters I saw talked about some ways to discern these kinds of fakes.

As mentioned, though, I think the majority of card-mounted images were taken at the studio whose imprint is on the card.

And I agree with Debora.... we'd love to see the image about which you are wondering!

 

I've heard of some resellers that go around looking for quality antique images that are out of copyright to copy and reproduce for their own financial gain. There is a growing crop of repro postcard sellers who find an expensive 100+ year old postcard and then make copies to sell on eBay. Kind of annoying to me although I know collectors that detest this practice.

 

The presentation I saw talked about that, too. They were mostly discussing 19th-century photos, though.

 

Hello, thanks for the replies, I didn't have a specific photo in mind. But I noticed when browsing CDV's & Cabinets on eBay, it seems like 60-70% of the photos I look at have a New York, NY studio/photographer printed on them. Particularly cabinets. I noticed Boston & Philadelphia are well represented too. I know those are 3 of the biggest cities on the East coast, so probably no surprise. I just don't see a lot of studios from the South or Mid-West, but maybe I'm just missing those. I've only been looking for about a month. And mostly on eBay. Thanks for the tip on fakes & reprints!

 

Well, one thing to consider is that New York City is larger than any other city in the U.S., and had a correspondingly large number of photographers, some quite famous.

I live in the Midwest and notice lots of listings for photos taken there. If you are interested, you could try doing searches using a state name as a keyword in the antique photo categories. Of course, that will only bring up listings in which the seller has identified the state in which the photo was taken. Some sellers don't do themselves favors by not giving much information. I have saved searches running for particular cities and towns in Michigan, since one of my great-grandfathers had photography studios there. EBay does send me results for any photographer in those towns. Sometimes his photos, but often other photographers there.

I've never regularly looked for locations in the South, so can't speak to that.

 

For postcards some geographical areas had more producing firms then others. Often postcard companies sent out photographers or teams of photographers out to get new material whether it be of buildings, disasters, or other events. So a small company from Columbus, Ohio would have images from all of the many of the towns around the area in addition to Columbus, Ohio postcards. Some firms were big national entities that produced cards for many cities and states.

 

Thanks for this info. I'll experiment with my eBay searches. I assume when you say postcards you're referring to RPPC's? I occasionally collect those as well and didn't really give much thought into how those were created. Sometimes I think I spend too much time on the subjects and not enough time researching the how, when, where of the medium that the subjects are on! Thanks again for the replies.

 

Yes. I just got a handful of RPPCs that were produced by small studios. Sometimes you will see lots of off the wall type stuff that you are surprised that it became a postcard.