Dating CDV photographs from the designs on the back

by Roger F. Vaughan 2003

The 1870s

In the early 1870s the card was still thin but slightly better quality than in the 1860s, with square corners. Now there are printers to make and sell the cards The first two show the 'Rotating Squares' designs used by the card printer Marion, Imp Paris and these were widely copied.

The designs of the 1860s are now incorporated within a shaped frame , see the ribbon design in card 4 and a similar one in a frame in card 5.

Designs are starting to be copied see 'The Banner' Cards 8 and 9, they look the same but are not the same in any detail. The classic simplicity of David Hains' card made by Marion in 1877 is a forerunner of many simple uncluttered designs. The Webster Bros by Marion, of 1878 'Ribbon and Scrolls' was widely used in various forms but usually curved during the 1880s, not angular as here. A feature to look for are those fine curling scroll designs that make up the background that were often used in the late 1870s