The beautiful woman in this vintage real photo postcard is Millie Legarde. She was an actress and a singer. She was active in her career between 1898 and 1911. She was a sitter for eight portraits in Great Britain’s National Portrait Gallery. She performed in numerous theater productions and in one film (1905). Searching for biographical information about Miss Legarde was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Preliminary research revealed that she appeared in many plays. Newspaper articles of the time, mention her name, but provide little information. It’s as if she was in the “witness protection program” and nearly all information about her has been scrubbed. Millie posed for a number of postcards but this card is certainly the nicest one I’ve seen. This postcard was published by Ralph Dunn & Company which operated out of London, England. The card is part of a series (no.A476). The postcard was manufactured in Berlin, Germany. (SOLD)
This vintage real photo features two lovely girls wearing their school uniforms. It is likely that they are sisters. The patch on their jackets probably reveals where they attended school. This photo was taken at the Van Ralty Limited Studios. The company operated photo studios in Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Nottingham, Oldham, and Bolton, England. Research uncovered one article that reported that the Van Ralty enterprise was in business between 1911 and 1933, It is unclear if the writer was referring to one of the individual studios or referring to the entire operation. This vintage postcard is in very good condition (see scans). SOLD
The pretty woman featured in this real photo postcard is Mable Woods. She was a theater actress. I could find little biographical information about her. I did discover that sometimes her name appeared as “Mabel” Woods rather than “Mable” Woods. I stumbled across a couple of real photo postcards in which Miss Woods made an appearance. Two of these cards were individual portraits of the actress but another postcard paired her with an actress name Rose de Vella. Mable Woods and Miss de Vella toured India together, performing in the chorus line for one of the “Gaiety Girls” touring companies. Irish born, George Edwards (1852-1915) was the theater manage of London’s Gaiety Theater. At one point he had sixteen touring companies. He had a propensity for hiring pretty young women to work as “Gaiety Girls”. These women were the chorus girls appearing in Edwardian musical comedies that began in the 1890’s. These women were an important ingredient for staging a successful musical production. They danced and appeared on stage in bathing attire and in the latest fashionable clothing. Unlike the corseted actresses from earlier musical burlesque shows, Gaiety Girls were viewed as respectable and refined. One writer reports that Gaiety girls “were polite, well-behaved young women”. Many Gaiety girls progressed to very successful acting careers. The list of former Gaiety girls reads like a hall of fame of celebrated actresses. Gaiety girls that catapulted to major roles include Marie Studholme, Mabel Love, Ellaline Terriss, Lily Elsie, Gladys Cooper, Phyllis Dare, and Gabrielle Ray. These and other starring alumni of the chorus, kept the moniker “Gaiety Girls”. The young women performing in Edward’s shows peaked the interest of wealthy gentlemen who became known as “Stage Door Johnnies”. They would wait outside the stage door and invite the actresses to dinner at fine restaurants. A number of women accepted the invitation. Sometimes the women would eventually marry one of these dates. A number of these women married noblemen, while others became the wives of professionals. In the book, “The Gaiety Years”, author Alan Hyman refers to the chorus as becoming “a matrimonial agency for girls with ambitions” to marry titled men. This postcard is in very good condition (see scans).
This vintage real photo postcard features a priest and his noble spaniel dog. This portrait was photographed by Albert Hester who operated a studio in London, England. Hester is mentioned in the British Journal of Photography (1910) for participating in a London exhibition. The card was published by Societe Industrielle de Photograpie (SIP) of Rueil, France. SOLD
This fun real photo postcard features a cute baby riding on a large dog. At first, I thought that this photograph was created via “trick photography” in the developing process. However, after looking further at the photo, I noticed that the baby’s parent was crouched behind the child in a hidden position. The parent is holding the child securely atop the dog. Note the parent’s hands under the baby’s arms. This photo was published by a studio in Margate, England. Margate is in Kent County in the United Kingdom. It is a coastal resort town. This vintage postcard is in very good condition (see scans).
This cabinet card portrait features an elegant gentleman. He is holding his top hat in one hand and a cane in the other. He ill well dressed and judging by his attire, he was a man of means. This photograph was taken in Scarborough, a town in North Yorkshire, England. The photo is from the studio of Oliver Sarony, a well known and commercially successful photographer. His studio had 98 rooms and at one point he had 110 employees. He was born in Quebec in 1820 and he came to England in 1843. He worked as a photographer in several English towns until he settled in Scarborough in 1857. He died in 1879. The business continued into the 20th century under the name Sarony & Co. The business was initially managed by Samuel Waind Fisher the husband of Oliver’s niece, Jennie. Interestingly Jennie was the daughter of Napoleon Sarony, the talented and well known celebrity photographer located in New York City. Note the inscription on the reverse of the photograph. The name of the signee appears to be “Tillis” and the inscription is dated “1877”. This cabinet card is in very good condition (see scans).
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 