Portrait Props - Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share their family history through photographs. 

Hats seemed to be the main  point of interest in this week's picture prompt, but earlier in the year I had  posted an Array of Hats,  

So I decided to go for a different theme - namely Portrait Props - the chairs, tables and artefacts  used in studio photographs.

 

On a bear skin rug?  My mother Kathleen Danson, born 1908, in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lacnashire,  is on the  right of this photograph, with her older sister Edith born a year and a week earlier in 1907. Needless to say this is the earliest picture I have of my mother. The Two Sisters remained very close all their lives

 

 

Who was that very stern, rather Spanish looking woman sitting in the  imposing chair?  This was the question  that started me on the family history trail when I found this photograph in a shoebox collection at my grandfather's house.   The answer -  my great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe.   There was an apocryphal  story that her dark looks had come from sailors, who after the Armada were shipwrecked on the Fylde coast of Lancashire.

By her side, her granddaughter Annie Maria who made her home with Maria after the early death of her own mother.  Annie was born 1905 and she looks to be around 10-11 years old in the picture, so I estimate it was was taken  c.1915.  Annie's father died in 1917 whilst at military camp.

 

 

 

This   was amongst the large collection of photographs of my Great Aunt Jennie and it seemed to be the fashion to stand young children on chairs and tables for formal photographs.

 

Written on the back was "From Mary, Charlie & Nannie Hardisty, Villa Farm, Bispham, Blackpool.  The photograph was taken at W .J. Gregson & Co, W, P. Beck, proprietor, Photographers, 92 Talbot Road, Blackpool.  

 

I did some quick detective work and found the family in the 1911 census, with Mary,  26 years old, husband Charles Alfred 24 and Nannie Ada 1 year old.  She does not look too happy here  in her best knitted coat and bonnet, plus little boots.   c. 1912. 

 

 

 

Another picture from Great Aunt Jennie's collection.  This photograph is so sweet, but I know next to nothing about it.   At least Jennie had written the names of the children  on the reverse as Jesse and Bernard Penington.  I like the seascape background, and is that a spade that Bernard has in his left hand?   I was unable to trace the children in the 1911 census, so think the photograph must have been taken later.   

 

 

An idyllic country scene as the studio backcloth in this photograph of Joseph  Prince Oldham  (1855-1917) and his granddaughter Elsie (1906-1989)  - plus Dolly, taken c. 1911.

Elsie Oldham and my mother, Kathleen Danson, were second cousins, and I am grateful for Elsie's son, Stuart for the use of this lovely photograph.

Joseph became a carter and coal merchant in Blackpool, Lancashire, in a house with stables, opposite the North Station. His son John William Oldham carried on the business.

In the 1920's, Elsie became a hairdresser, giving her name a French twist as "Elise", working from the family home.

 

 

 

 My Great Uncle George (Jennie's youngest brother), looking very studious in another imposing seat which reminds me of the Coronation Chair . George, born 1894,  was killed at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.   See A Sad Watch Tale. 

 

 

 

A light-hearted moment in war time for this posed picture of my grandfather William Danson.  A family story related that during the First World War, he befriended some Scottish soldiers and dressed up in one of their  kilts and tammie  for this photograph.  In reality he was a Lancastrian through and through.  He won the Military Medal at Givenchy but would never talk about his wartime experiences to his family.

 

 

 Finally 1944 and my elegant  mother Kathleen Weston, nee Danson.  I am the baby!   A studio  photograph that my father carried with him during the war. 

 

 

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