Highland Dress.

Tags

Anlady Road Hull, Antiques and collectables, Ephemera, Fancy Dress, Grannies Parlour, Highland dress, Hull, Hull City of Culture 2017, J J Payne, kilt, old photographs, Photography, portrait photography, sporran

Note the detailing on the jacket, especially on the cuff.

On my last visit to “Grannies Parlour“, an antique shop on Hull’s Anlady Road, I found quite a few photographs worth adding to my collection, including three studio portraits of young ladies in Highland dress of varying degrees of authenticity. The largest is on thick card and show a girl with a feather in her glengarry cap. Sadly the photograph doesn’t have the name of the photographic studio on it anywhere.

Is this the same girl from the first photograph, do you think? But a couple of years older.

In the second photograph the costume is more fancy dress than highland dress, but the pose more than makes up for it; a young highland dancer perhaps? This photograph is post card size, but, like the first, it doesn’t bear the photographers name. I’m assuming it was taken in a photographic studio, because the wall in the background is suspiciously bear for somebody’s house!

The kilt is a little short!

The third photograph does have a name and address on it, “J. J. Payne, 106, Anlady Road, hull“, printed on the back. Sussex Postcards. info informs me that Mr. Payne is listed in the trade directories of Bexhill-on-Sea as a photographer in 1903 and 1904. He then appears in the Withernsea census of 1911. The studio backdrop is very elaborate; the young lady looks like she is having her photograph taken on the battlements of a castle!

I find these interesting because, I think, they are about cultural identity. As an Englishman, whose late-Grandfather was a very proud Scotsman, I never went as far as dressing in a kilt, but I inherited a lot of his likes and dislikes (in fact the last vinyl album I added to my record collection was by the Pipes & Drums of the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) and a feeling that I need to keep my Scottish heritage alive, even if it sometimes seems that no one is interested! Perhaps these photographs were a way for families in Hull to maintain that Scottish heritage; a heritage that has now sadly been forgotten.

The Three Graces.

Tags

Ephemera, Grannies Parlour, Hull, Hull City of Culture 2017, old photographs, Photography, portrait photography, studio portrait.

I thought this portrait had a distinctly Pre-Raphaelite look about it with when I first discovered and I very quickly filed it away to one side before continuing the search through the box I’d found it in [sadly there wasn’t anything like it or even an photograph of the same sitter that might help shed some light on the photographs provenance].  It reminded me of “Autumn Leaves” by John Everett Millais, which I vaguely recall from Manchester Art Gallery, although the sitter is a bit older and her attire is more Bohemian.

It looks like a lot of thought has gone into this portrait, don’t you think? I would have thought a pose that leaves half of the sitter’s face in shadow would be undesirable, so I find the contrast of light and dark fascinating, but also rather surprising. Perhaps the sitter or the photographer inspired by the publicity photographs of their favourite silent era film actresses? The back of the photograph is blank, but I’m guessing this photograph was taken in Yorkshire, judging by the provenance of the other photographs along side it, and I’d love to think that, even in cities like Hull, studio photographers were aiming to instill a touch of Hollywood glamour into their work.

What a gem. It looks like the photographer has called on this lady at home [an indication of poor mobility on the part of the sitter perhaps] and has arranged a very interesting scene in the back yard. Look at the character in this lady’s face. She must have had a great love of photographs; note the photograph frame and photograph albums on the table beside her [and the pot plant; obviously a prized possession for it to be included]. I wonder how many more portraits she had taken after this one?

All of these photographs were purchased at “Granny’s Parlour”, 33 Anlady Road, Hull, HU1 2PG.

“To Dear Mother”, “Grannies Parlour”, Hull.

Tags

baby, Ephemera, family, Grannies Parlour, Hull, mother and father, Photography, studio portrait.

Happy Mother’s Day! I found this family group in a box, one of many boxes, lined up down the right hand side of “Grannies Parlour”, an antiques and collectables shop in Hull. The shop front is small and it shares a doorway with the the barbers next door, but don’t be fooled; the shop makes up for it’s width by it’s extraordinary length! Just as you think it’s finishing you turn into another room piled high one man’s rubbish and another man’s treasure.

Visited: Within the last 5 years.

You can see more photographs from my collection at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/121480122@N04/sets/72157643085991143/