Cartes de Visite Dates

Europe and USA I have read in books on the history of photography that cartes de visite were introduced into Europe in 1853 and the USA in 1859. The date for Europe seems reasonable, and it may well have been the late 1850s before they were widely used in Europe.  However, this note in The Scotsman from 1855 is interesting "A new kind of visiting card is now in use by the 'crême of  New York Society  -  instead of a name, the card bears the photographic portrait of the caller" [The Scotsman, 4 April 1855, p.2]

Methods of Dating Cartes de Visite There are many possible ways of estimating the dates of carte de visite photos: 1.  Sometimes (but rarely) a handwritten date has been added to the back of the photo.  But in most cases there is neither a date nor a name of the sitter. 2. The photographer's name and address can be matched against entries in old trade directories directly, or more easily against entries on this web site or in books such as those produced by Richard Torrance 3.  Where a photographer added illustrations of his medals on the back of his cartes de visite, the dates on these medals can be helpful in dating the photo. 4.  Fashions and hairstyles of the subjects can be matched against reference books, such as Dating Old Photographs by Robert Pols. 5.  Later cartes de visite tended to have more ornate backs.  Earlier ones usually just showed the photographer's name and address, often in very small simple text. 6.  Early cartes de visite tended to be on fairly thin card with square corners.  Later cartes were often on thicker card, usually with rounded corners.

Other Clues 7.  The note below shows how a number of other factors can be taken into account in estimating the date of a photograph.  The comments were provided by Ron Cosens to estimate the date of a photograph by Micciullo, 12(?) Dean Park, Edinburgh, a name and address that I have not found in the Edinburgh Trade Directories: "The style of the oval vignette presentation was used from the early 1870s to after 1900 but seems most prevalent between 1877 and 1885. Also, by that time portraits had move from full length to (in many cases) 3/4 length.  Also by then the image had become 'larger on the page'.  So my estimate, without seeing the real thing, is about 1880."