My experience with photographs is mostly earlier (I am a wet plate
photographer and this is almost certainly dry plate) but I agree with you.
I do not believe that this is a post mortem photograph at all. Here is the
seller's reasoning.
"The bride in the photo is clearly deceased. Her hands are in rigor
mortis, while most brides hands touch, or are on their spouses shoulder.
The man in the photo is not touching her and most importantly the flowers on
her lap are attached to a ribbon across her lap, most likely holding her in
place. If she was alive she would be holding them herself. The flowers are
also dead, and not living flowers. She is not holding a live bouquet & she
has a strange stare to her eyes. She is not looking in the same place the
man is, and the man clearly looks upset."
Okay, may answers to this. First off, nearly all post mortem shots
show the eyes closed. They are usually children, but I could see why a new
bride might be remembered this way. Usually you can tell the subject is
dead, I find them sort of creepy because of that, but I have seen a few were
it isn't so clear.
I see no reason to suspect the hands are in rigor mortis, and if
they are the rest of the body certainly isn't. Her pose makes that clear.
In fact the right arm is bent, resting on the chair arm and is hanging
there.
As to Edwardian Brides hands touching, I do not know. I have seen
hands in all sorts of positions. I have NOT seen a lot of obviously bridal
photos however. Again I suspect that has to due with my research being more
Victorian than Edwardian. Her hand could NOPT be on the gentleman's
shoulder however, as she is sitting and he standing. In fact that is
perhaps the greatest evidence in favor of this being post mortem. In my
period with a couple it is usually the MAN sitting, though that is always
the case and hardly conclusive. Besides today we would usually sit the
woman, that obviously changed sometime and it might well have been with the
Edwardians. I am no expert on Edwardian Wedding Photos and this woman
claimed to be, so I did a quick search of other auctions and found only one
other Edwardian.
http://cgi.ebay.com/STUNNING-Edwardian-Wedding-Photo-BRIDE-Girls-Long-Curls_
W0QQitemZ380202433976QQcmdZViewItemQQptZArt_Photo_Images?hash=item5885d4bdb8
Here it isn't clear where the brides left hand is and therefore if it is
touching the right because of the bouquet. It might be. There is another
couple in the shot as well, who are not touching at all. Frankly, I do not
think this seller has any real expertise in period shots and is making
assumptions based upon modern practices.
That the man isn't touching her doesn't impress me at all. The
other Groom isn't touching his wife either. If he is willing to pose with a
corpse why would anyone suppose he wouldn't be willing to touch her? In fact
there often is this sort of contact in post mortem shots.
The flowers are interesting. In this shot not knowing what kind of
flowers they are I don't think we can really know if they are dead or not.
Even if they are old, which isn't all that odd this is obviously a studio
shot and almost certainly NOT taken at the wedding it proves little. It
does seem odd to me that she isn't holding them and that may be evidence for
post mortem. I do not see that they are fastened to the ribbon, which is
certainly a part of the dress and doesn't seem to be at able to hold a
corpse up. It appears to be around her was it and not around the chair.
Along the same line, look at that long slender neck holding her head
perfectly upright. Nothing but her neck his supporting that head, which to
me makes it perfectly clear that she is alive. My wife supposed that they
may have been using a photographer's head clamp. If they had it would have
been visible in this shot, but besides they don't really do that. They
cannot hold your head up, they can't even really hold your head still, they
are more a reminder that you are moving.
Her stare doesn't seem odd at all for period photography, it isn't
clear to me that she is looking somewhere else than her husband, but then
even if she is that doesn't mean much. More of a photographer's error than
anything else, whether or not the subject is alive. I don't see any sign
that her husband is upset either. Half of his face is hidden and period
shots do not usually show much emotion.
I think this is a nice cabinet card, I don't think it is worth what
it is already selling for, and I think both subjects were alive when it was
shot.
"I'm your huckleberry"
Ron Carnegie
[email protected]
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Dianne
Sent: Saturday, February 06, 2010 8:19 AM
To: Historical Costume
Subject: Re: [h-cost] Is this real or not?
I found a photo on eBay that is being described as a post-mortem bride
photo. What do you think, is she death or not? Read the description the
seller has of the bride. The item number is 380202466338>>
I don't believe this is a post mortem photo. I don't think that woman looks
dead, she has the same rigid posture as almost any photo taken at that
time--sitting utterly still for that long would not be conducive to a
relaxed posture! The flowers do look off, but I believe brides and grooms
often posed for their wedding portrait some time after the ceremony, so it
could be her bouquet had been dried for preservation.
Dianne
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