This cabinet card features a pretty young girl posing for her portrait while she holds her doll. The girl has a serious expression as she looks into the distance. She is wearing a necklace and has a bow in her hair. The photographer is Oscar Victor Lange (1853-1913) of San Francisco, California. He was a leading photographer in San Francisco and also was known as a landscape painter. He was born in Hoboken New Jersey to German immigrants. His family name was “Fahrenberg”. His father was a portrait painter and his family moved around alot. The 1860’s found them in New Orleans and in the 1870’s the family lived in Texas. During the 1870’s Oscar moved to San Francisco where he worked with Ernest W. Newth producing stereographs. At this time he changed his last name to “Lange”. In the 1880’s Oscar opened his own San Francisco studio on Market Street and during the 1890’s he relocated to Montgomery Street. Lange was known for his urban architectural photographs and also for his portraits of railroad workers. He is also noted for his astronomical photographs taken with the University of California. Lange died in 1913 from tuberculosis. This cabinet card has some extra features. Note the maroon mount and the gold trimmed edges. (SOLD)
This vintage real photo postcard features an adorable little girl, seated on a bench, and holding a little doll. The doll appears to be a kewpie doll. Kewpie is a brand of doll which was modeled after a comic strip character created by cartoonist Rose O’Neill in 1909. The doll had a similar appearance to cupid. In 1912 the first kewpie doll appeared and it was a bisque doll. Later, the dolls were made of composition (1920’s), celluloid (1930’s and 1940’s), and later plastic kewpies made their appearance. A person knowledgable about dolls, told me that the doll seen in this photograph is made of celluloid. The AZO stamp box on the reverse of this postcard indicates that the photograph was taken sometime between 1926 and the 1940’s. This photo postcard is in excellent condition (see scans). 
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 