Figure 1.--This cabinet card shows Manlee Spores all dressed up in long pants sailor suit for a formal studio portrait. It is a new-style cabinet card with an impressed frame. Note that the surface of the card is still mostly matting rather than a photograph. The card was not dates, but because we know Manlee was born in 1902, we can tell the portrait was taken in 1907-07. Cabinets card like this become rarer by the end of the decade. This was a largeccard. The mount measured 7” x 11”, substantially larger than the classic cabinet card. The image itself measured 3” x 5", only a little smaller than the images on the classic card.

Here we see the new-style mounts, but with a small photographic image. The image was relatively small but not the tiny very small images. The matting still covered more than half of the card.The mount style and shape was highly variable. The matting also varied. The images were usually set off by a frame affect pressed into the card matting. Most of these cabinet card we have found date to about 1900-07. This is a very rough estimate at this time as we have found very few dated examples. We are not yet sure if these cads were done in the same shades as the cards with tiny images.

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Created: 7:13 PM 1/12/2010
Last updated: 2:14 AM 11/30/2010