17.00 USD
"Wait...let me think...no." :)
The model is identified as J. de Lafere, but bears a remarkable resemblance to Belle Epoque performer Irma de Lafere. They might be twins...or more probably, they are one and the same person, and the individual responsible for the image text simply got the first initial of her name wrong.
This happened far more frequently than one might think, and not just with initials, but very alternative spellings of the names of both the artistes and even the photographers were not at all uncommon; wonderful for us, because images bearing correct spellings find their way into their "proper slots," while the others are often placed by dealers and collectors in plain alphabetical order. This kind of thing lets us "discover" uncommon, highly collectible images of well known performers, and bring them to you.
Unfortunately, Mlle. de Lafere is not one of these. We can't really find any history under either name, so she remains the unknown subject of a beautiful, and superbly hand-colored, image.
The card was published by Monsieur G. Piprot of Etoile, in Paris, from a photograph taken by one of our favorite photographers, Professor E. Stebbing.
Professor Stebbing was an extremely prolific portraitist, who operated a studio out of Boulevard des Italiens et 30 Rue Grammont, Paris, France. He is a bit of a mystery man, as we have found quite a number of references to him pertaining to photography of the period, but no biography as of yet. We don't know what he was a professor of, or even what the initial E. stood for (we're guessing Edward).
Presumably because of his studio address, he is often called a French photographer, but we do know that Stebbing is a common enough English name, that in the 1870s, he was a regular contributor to the British Journal of Photography (in fact, he was that magazine's "Paris correspondent" for a time), made regular trips to England, and since, in writing about him, and quoting him, the Journal referred to him as "Professor" and not "Professeur," we suspect he was an expatriate Englishman who made his home in Paris.
Also, like so many of those early photographers, Stebbing was an inventor. In those days, many photographers, who were more than dabblers, were inventors out of necessity, as it was only through experimentation with the vast number of chemicals and broad (and constantly "newfangled"), varieties of equipment, that advances in their art were accomplished.
Stebbing was actually the inventor of the first "roll film" camera in 1883, which by 1887 was retailing for about twelve dollars. Below, there is a link to the George Eastman House Technology Archive where you can learn more about that camera and enjoy an image of it as well.
http://www.geh.org/fm/brownie2/htmlsrc/mS810500001_ful.html
A lovely card, showing off Stebbing's (and Piprot's) talent for toying with the development and printing processes in a way that particularly lent itself to brilliant coloration. There is writing on the reverse of the card, with lots of curliqueues, in the ubiquitous violet ink of the period, and a "Happy New Year" sticker, as well. Please examine our high res scans for detail.
Postage is for first class shipping in a secure photo mailer, and we happily combine shipping on all paper goods. If you purchase two cards, we will refund the postage on the second card, and when you purchase three or more cards from us at the same time, your shipping will be entirely free, except for international orders which, because of sudden increases in international shipping rates will still be charged one card's shipping fees on orders of three or more.
And please come visit our blog at:
redpoulaine.blogspot.com
where we post biographical and historical tidbits, images of cards and photographs for sale, some already sold but remembered fondly, related images of historical interest and sometimes even images of items that have not yet arrived in the shop, but that are expected to arrive soon, as well as coupon codes, links to other related sites, and more!