Figure 1.--This cabinent card was taken in Bavaria durung 1906. Until the turn-of-the 20th century, CDVs were much more common than cabinent cards. Note the grey or grayish-green color of the card and silver printing. We also note similar cabinent cards in the United States at about the same time.

We do note large numbers of CDVs in Germany beginning with the 1860s. The CDVs basically made dags and ambrotypes obsolete. Most families of any affluence would have a CDV album, sometimes several, in the parlour. CDVs seem to gave been the principal formt form most of the late 19th century. Cabinent cards do not seem to have been as popular in Germany as they were in America. This is a major difference in the photographic record. In America, caninent cards largely replaced the CDV format in the 1870s. This did not occur in German and many other European countries. We are not sure why this dichotomy developed. Most studio portraits were CDVs until the very late 1890s. We see large numbers of cabinent cards in the 1900s, but only in that single decade. By the 1910s we see silvernitrate portraits in other formats such as post cards and portraits with paper frames.

Created: 1:25 AM 10/8/2008
Last updated: 1:25 AM 10/8/2008