This vintage real photo postcard features English actress, singer, and dancer, Gaynor Rowlands (1883-1906). She carried the nickname of “The Nightingale of Wales”. She started her career in Empire Theatres’s Ballet. Upon graduation, she joined the company chorus line of George Edwarde’s Gaiety Theatre. She toured India in 1901/02. She quickly became a star and she became the most photographed of the “Gaiety Girls”. She was a popular subject of photo postcards and theatre magazine articles. Rowland’s life was cut short when she died of heart failure at the age of twenty-three after surgery for appendicitis. Eight portraits of Gaynor are in England’s National Portrait Gallery. The IMDb reports that she has one film in her filmography. lt was released in 1905. This vintage portrait postcard was published by Philco as part of a series (No. 3211 D). The photographer of this postcard photograph is Garet Charles. He operated a photo studio in London. His wife’s fame as a photographer, overshadowed his own. His wife was celebrity photographer, Lallie Charles. This photograph of Miss Rowlands is a bit risque for it’s time. The front of her dress is overly revealing. (S0LD)
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 