Sepia Saturday - A Child on a Horse

The Sepia Saturday suggestion for today is a photograph of a man posing horseback while holding a milk can.

Well I looked and I don't seem to have any photograph exactly like that.

And since I don't have anything like that, I decided to take this opportunity to collect together all the LOST GALLERY photographs of a Kid on a Horse that appear to be taken by an assortment of itinerant photographers when that sort of thing was popular, indeed possible. I've been needing to get them all together on their own page anyway.

I have a good friend who had an ancestor who was one of these enterprising photographers. She tells me that they would lead the saddled pony through a neighborhood. When they spotted a child playing in a yard, they would pick it up and put it on the pony. The parents could hardly turn down chance for a professional photograph of the event.

And yes, the practice was called, in the trade, "Kidnapping." There were variations of the system. Some offered free pony rides and free costumes. But the point was the photograph sale.

So here they are, and not a milk can among them.

Here you can spot the cautious parent crouching behind the horse to make sure the tot does not fall.

But not in this one!

Hidden Safety, Crouching Parent

Another safety minded parent.

This one was finished at a commercial photolab so it probably isn't by an itinerant photographer.

I'm not sure about this one. This might be at a theme park so it might not be a "kidnapping" at all. (It's not a pony either...)

This one is probably not from an itinerant photographer either. Also there's no crouching parent.

This one is probably an itinerant photographer but not a very good one. There's a big parent shadow included.

There's more ...
Here are some related pages about -
Novelty Photobooth
Itinerant Street Photographs
Posing on a Pony with lots of NON itinerant snaps

Saddle up and ride on back to the Sepia Saturday homepage and mosey over to some more results of this week's suggestion.

Go back to THE MAIN INDEX PAGE

There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.
Or try out the NEW BACK PAGE INDEX

Most popular photographs
and the most requested photographs in the Lost Gallery.

Area 51 and a Half You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
One Man's Treasure
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.

And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.
POSTCARDY

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use. All rights reserved.

THE KIDS It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned. Here are a few. You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story; What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

"What are they doing?"

Sepia Saturday - Jewels

This week's SEPIA SATURDAY suggestion is about JEWELS

Before I say anything else, I must comment that the example at the left makes me think of Alexander Calder. I can't imagine why.

Now, down to business.

The term "JEWEL" turned up a several items in LOST GALLERY. There were necklaces, rings, medals, tiaras and ear-bobs.

I decided these three were the best to represent the theme for this week.

While researching for this page, I discovered that there are whole web pages, whole businesses, that answer to a search for JEWLERY. JewLEry!

Look it up! Try MACY'S

This photo is encrusted with tiny jewels, probably glass, carefully glued to the print, one by one following the design of dress. The red ones are apparent but the clear/white ones scanned as dark spots. I puzzled over how to make the sparkles more apparent and finally just gave up.

Note the waist. And it's probably not a photo trick either.

I have never been too sure what the message in the upper left corner is.

The stamp does indeed say "Republica Argentina." I found this one on a trip to Wichita Falls, TX, back in September 2009.

Someone has to say it. Considering all the binding, stretching, starving and bleaching, it's a wonder there are any women left at all.

And all for men who seldom deserve the effort.

Okay. The soapbox is back in the closet.

Here are "Three Jewels" of a different sort.

On reverse, it says:
Persia Sept 14th
1911
Received your card last
night Glad to hear you were
all right. All well here
Only I have a bad could
How is W (?) Valley ****(?)
Soe Good by
Frank

Miss Elsie Turney
Roosevelt
Okla.

Postmark is Persia, Iowa, Sept 14, 1911

Three Jewels, Perfect Movement.

It's hard to miss the light humor of the double entendre here. The three women flashing a little ankle make me think of classic Cole Porter, Anything Goes.
"In olden times a glimpse of stocking
was looked on as something shocking.
Now, heaven knows, anything goes."

Sigh. If mister Porter could see us now ...

Okay, here's one that's really about real jewelry.

Here we have a tintype of a lovely woman wearing a large necklace.

Now, we are looking at a time when about the only “plastic” items around were the celluloid collars that men wore. So this necklace is probably not a plastic, like much of costume jewelry today.

original

Using my kitchen food scale I weighed some carved wood drapery rings about that size. They weighed a half an ounce each. I count about 54 rings showing in the photograph. Add on about 16 for the two loops behind her neck and you have 70 rings. Seventy carved wood rings would weigh (Are the brain cells clicking?) 35 ounces. That’s two pounds, three ounces. Of wood rings. Add on the fact that the wood rings are probably linked together with small metal jump rings. They weigh something too. (Ten paper clips weighed a half ounce.)

But the whole necklace is likely metal of some sort. That much precious metal would be astronomical in value, so it is probably not gold or platinum or silver. That leaves what? Copper? Brass? Tin? How about pewter? Is it some obscure zinc alloy we called “pot” or “monkey” metal?

Aluminum was not even “discovered” until 1827 and it was a couple more decades before it was in general usage. So it is probably not aluminum. (Remember the “chains” we made of those obsolete pull-tabs from aluminum drink cans?)

I can't think of a metal that would make that chain weigh less than three pounds but it likely would be double that. Hanging around one's neck, it would seem literally like an albatross after only a short time.

Could it be made of papier mache? I remember a neighbor who had a bead curtain across the entry to her parlor. As I child I determined that the “beads” were mostly made of strips of papier mache, rolled, sanded and painted. I’m not sure how rings could be made from papier mache.

For reference, all of the clothes I wear, including the usual keys, wallet, comb and change in the pockets, weigh less than five pounds. Here is a necklace that ALONE weighs at least a couple pounds.

adjusted

Considering all the time, effort and sacrifice that women make for their appearance, maybe two or three pounds of jewelry is not such a stretch of the imagination.

What do you think?

This week's SEPIA SATURDAY suggestion is about JEWELS

See what else is waiting at Sepia Saturday.

Go back to THE MAIN INDEX PAGE

There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.
Or try out the NEW BACK PAGE INDEX

The most popular photographs An album of the most requested photographs in the Lost Gallery.

Area 51 and a Half You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
One Man's Treasure
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.
And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use.
All rights reserved.

THE KIDS It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned. Here are a few. You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story; What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

"What are they doing?"

Enhancement - Looking For Lost Details - June 2013

For some, an old photograph loses its charm when "restored" to modern day clarity with all the age spots removed. Some photographs however, benefit greatly from just a nudge of enhancement. An improved contrast or the reversal of the yellowing brings out details that otherwise would have been missed and lost forever.

To please both camps of those of us who rescue old photographs, here are both the originals and the enhanced of just a few of the latest additions to Lost Gallery.

Again, there are some really good examples this month, where a little boost made a great difference.

Three people on the balcony, two in windows.

The usual method of enhancement helped reveal the inscription on the reverse of the above photograph.

Can't get enough?
Look back at these previous pages on ENHANCEMENT
Enhancement: Looking for Lost Details - March 2011
Enhancement: Looking for Lost Details - April 2011
Enhancement: Looking for Lost Details - May 2011
Enhancement: Looking for Lost Details - June 2011
Enhancement: Looking for Lost Details - August 2011
Enhancement: Looking for Lost Details - September 2011
Enhancement: Looking for Lost Details - February 2013
Enhancement: Looking for Lost Details - March 2013
And there's more!

Go back to THE MAIN INDEX PAGE

There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.
Or try out the NEW BACK PAGE INDEX

The most popular photographs An album of the most requested photographs in the Lost Gallery.

Area 51 and a Half You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
One Man's Treasure
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.
And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use.
All rights reserved.

THE KIDS It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned. Here are a few. You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story; What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

"What are they doing?"