| An early example of a Carte de Visite that appears to show a Bandsman of the Grenadier Guards with his wife and infant child. After examining the image closely it now seems that this is an example of what has become know to collectors as a Postmortem photo. The woman's expression and black dress reinforce this grim assessment. While the practice of taking postmortem photographs of deceased family members, especially children may be at odds with modern sensibilities it was viewed quite differently in the past and images such as this could quite possibly be the only record of a very young life cut short by a child mortality rate that we today can hardly imagine. Carte de Visite J. Pearce - Photographer 21 Gt Berry Street, Wolverhampton, England c. 1870 |
