Lengthwise Imprints
On card mounted photographs, we see the photographer’s imprint on front, on back, or both. When the imprint is on the back, it can be oriented the way most portraits are, with the ‘upright’ dimension the longer one, or it can be oriented parallel to the long side, like a typical business card. It is also possible that the imprint can be diagonal, though it is rare to see one in which all the text is perfectly diagonal — more often one element, often the photographer’s name, is diagonal, and other text is either vertical (parallel to the short side) or lengthwise.
In today’s study we are going to look only at card-mounted photographs with photographer’s imprints on the back, and see which way they run, and if that gives us any clues as to the date the photograph was taken. As usual, we will look at the frequencies for particular styles as their popularity ebbs and wanes.
We will restrict the term ‘imprints’ to include only information printed on the card. Many photographers used rubber stamps in the 1860s and later, and after 1900 many card mounted photographs have blind-stamps — but neither of those will be included in this study. Rubber stamps can be oriented any which way, and vary from one card to the next for the same photographer. Blind imprints are usually intended to be read from the front, though they often are also visible from the back, they are really not intended as back-side imprints.