Figure 1.-- This cabinet card portrait has a grey frame. This and other grey shades were very common in the 1900s. Also note the simulated frame and textured matt. It was taken on May 15, 1903. The size is 5 1/4 X 9 1/8 centimeters. The studio was Marham & Bibent, 810 Mission St., San Francisco, California.

We have found the new cabinet cards after the turn-of-the 20th century were done in a fairly limited number of colors. And the numbers are commomly different than yhose populasr on the traditional cabinet cards popular in the 19th century, especially the 1870s-80s. The colors we see mostly commonly are various shades of cream/ivory, brown, and grey. Some of the grey shades have a greenish or less commonly a bluish look to them, so we might add geeen or more like olive to the list. The cabinet card done in 1899 here is a good example (figure 1). We see a few late-1890s mounts, but the vast number of these mounts were done after the turn-of the century. This is a relatively narrow range of colors and is thus these new mount styles and colors are helpful helful dating tools. We note a much greater range of colors on 19th century cabinet card mounts. We are not yet sure about the chronological variations of these colors in the 1900s and 10s, but are beginning to develop some basiv information.

Brown Shades

Brown shades were popular for the new cabinet cards in the early-20th century. We tend to see them more in the 1910s than the 1900s. We also see these brown shades used in the paper frames that became popular in the 1920s.

Cream/ivory Shades

We notice various cream shade card stocks on both the traditional cabinet cards during the 1890s and the new style cabinet cards of the 1900s.

Grey Shades

Grey shades were very popular for the cabinet card stock in the early 20th century. We see a range of these grey shades in the 1900s. The portrait here in 1903 is a good example, although the bluish tint was less common than other grey shades (figure 1).

Olive Shades

Some of card stock used for the new style cabinet cards was done in grey shades have a greenish or less commonly a bluish look to them, so we might add green or more like olive to the list. We see olive shades being used for the new style cabinet cards that appear at the turn-of-the 20th century. This was not a color that was used on the traditional cabinet cards popular before the turn-of-the century. It was very common for the new style of cabinet cards. Olive does not seem like a very attractive color for these mounts. It has a rather dreary look tiday, but apparentlt that was not how people at the time saw it. We are not sure why olive became so popular. Most of the examples we have found come from the 1900s. Olive seems less popular in the 1910s. And we do not see olive being used in the paper frames that became popular in the 1920s.

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Created: 12:26 AM 6/30/2010
Last updated: 8:13 PM 12/13/2010