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I reunite identified family photos that I find in antique shops and second hand stores with genealogists and family historians. If you see one of your ancestors here and would like to obtain the original, feel free to contact me at familyphotoreunion [ at ] yahoo [ dot ] com. I also accept donations of pre-1927 images to be reunited. I hope you enjoy your visit!
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Dinner Time in the Woods, from the Alma Studio, Tonbridge, England, Ca. 1910



This real postcard image is a little different than others I've posted here on Family Photo Reunion.  It seems to have been created for commercial sales.  It's labelled, "Dinner Time," and features a group enjoying hot drinks and sandwiches in the great outdoors. 

The image was created by "The Alma Studio" at 76 High Street, Tonbridge, Kent, England.  This particular studio, owned by George Pickett, was in operation from roughly 1892 to 1915.  I noticed that the drinks are being served from what appear to be Thermos flasks.  If they are truly vacuum flasks, we can say that the image dates to after 1904, when Thermos first began producing them for commercial use.

If I had to guess, I'd place this image around 1910.  But what really makes this postcard image interesting is that we have the identification of the play actors on the back:

"Mrs Copper, seated
Mr. Russell & son, Mrs. C's brother in law.
Miss Duke, a friend who was here for 
a holiday
& myself."


Too bad there aren't any given names listed.  It makes figuring out who these individuals are much more difficult.


5 comments:

  1. I find the captioning confusing.

    Is Mrs. Cooper's brother in law a Mr. Russell Cooper (i.e., the first name is Russell) or is he a Mr. Russell (and if so... how does a brother in law end up with a surname like that?)

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  2. ..and which of the two seated ladies is the one that is captioned, "seated"?

    :)

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  3. Hi Iggy,
    I read it as Mr. Russell is Mrs. Cooper's brother-in-law, Russell being his last name. He could be her sister's husband. The "seated" part is confusing. I suppose she wrote it that way since the recipient would know who "myself" was. But, we don't know which name goes with which woman. I wish she'd identified the individuals in order, left to right, or used some marker that could help us a bit. "Woman wearing hat" would have helped.

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  4. Kathy Reed, our society's blogmaster at hcgsohio.blogspot.com, recommended your blog and asked readers to stop by and say "hi". So, hi and BTW, love your blog! What a great idea! :))

    ReplyDelete