ClassyArts Blog

Hand Tinted CDV by Charles K Bill of New York NY

This is the first in a series of posts devoted to general descriptions of the most common types of antique photographs. The carte de visite was one of the first photographic styles that was mass-produced, and owes its early popularity more to its low price and ease of reproduction than to the quality of image. Despite that generality, there were some very beautiful photographs produced in this format.

The original size of a carte de visite was a paper print 2-1/8 x 3-1/2 inches mounted on a card sized 2-1/2 x 4 inches. The size of the print varied somewhat from one photographer — indeed from one print — to the next, but the card mount was fairly consistent, varying only slightly. Early cards were cut by the photographer from larger pieces of ‘Bristol board’ (thin cardboard), and so varied more than cards from a year or two later, which were mass produced. Many CDVs, especially those from the 1860s, are slightly smaller today than when produced because consumers clipped the corners or trimmed one or more edges to make them slide into the pockets on album pages more easily.

Semantics

The term carte de visite is French for calling card, and reflects the size, rather than function, of the card-mounted image. That term also reflects the French origin of the style. Sometimes the term is hyphenated — carte-de-visite — rather than spelled as three words. From early in its popularity, the carte de visite has been called by the initials — CDV. A few people use CdV or cdv, but usually all the letters are capitalized.

The plural form is more difficult. When writing out the full name, most people use cartes de visite, but following that logic the plural abbreviation would be CsDV, which is unwieldy and confused looking. The plural CDVs is much more common and sensible appearing, but implies the full plural term should be carte de visites. For English speakers use of cartes de visite as the plural requires translating the the term to ‘calling card’ — pluralized as ‘calling cards’ then translated back to French. The hyphenated form shows that many people consider the term just one word, and so the correct plural in English should be carte de visites.

1868 tintype of Susana Krup in CDV size card mount with embossed frame

Carte de visite sized mounts were used for other types of photographs, but to be 100% correct in terminology, these should not be referred to as CDVs, but as ‘tintype in CDV sized mount’ or ‘gem sized image on CDV sized card mount’ or some such qualifying statement. Since the exact size of the CDV print varied, I have developed a simple rule for all CDVs, Cabinet Cards, Boudoir, and other named formats from the 1860s through 1880s (things become more complex in the 1890s with a profusion of names for card mounted images): the photograph width must be 90% or more of the total cardstock width (narrower dimension). This eliminates much confusion, particulary with regard to true cabinet cards, and post-1900 photographs mounted on a cabinet-card sized mat.

Carte de Visite History

P T Barnum CDV Image from 1862

The origin of the CDV is attributed to Disdéri, who patented the style in 1854. As with any innovation, it took a while to catch-on, and only came into common use in Europe around 1859, and in North America about 1860. That it gained rapidly in popularity can be deduced from the vast numbers of such cards dating from the early 1860s that can be found today.

Earlier photographs were mostly daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes — each of which are unique in that they were produced directly in the camera, without any intervening negative form. CDVs were mostly albumen prints — produced on paper from a glass plate negative. That means that dozens or hundreds of copies could be produced quickly and efficiently, leading to quantity discounts and low production costs. The CDV format was used for private portraits in the millions, as well as celebrity photos and scenic views.

Civil War Soldiers in Uniform

In the United States, the rise in popularity of the carte de visite format coincided with the Civil War, which gave its own impetus to these cheap and convenient sized images. Young men leaving for the war left their images behind, and took with images of their loved ones. Soldiers patronized camp-following photographic tents to send their likenesses home to anxious parents and spouses — the flat card-mounted images were easy to mail. And the public at large gobbled up vast numbers of war-related images, particularly the leading characters such as Lincoln and the Generals on both sides of the conflict. To some extant actual battlefield images were produced on CDVs, but these were more popular, and dramatic, in the stereoview format.

Temporal Distribution

In 1866 a larger format of card mounted photograph was introduced, the cabinet card. Although characterized by some writers as an ‘instant success’ that format was actually quite slow to catch-on — but eventually it replaced the carte de visite as the most popular format. In the 1870s the larger cabinet cards were commonly used for scenic views, but CDVs still predominated in the portrait market. And to judge from surviving images, portraits outnumber scenic views at least 10 to one.

Early 1880s Carte de Visite

Finally, however, about 1880, people began to appreciate the larger format for portraits as well as scenery. The carte de visite died a very slow death however. It is not uncommon to find the exact same image in CDV and cabinet card format — the subject giving parents or spouse the fine cabinet card, while friends get the cheaper CDVs.

If one were to purchase a completely random selection of 100 American CDVs, 80% would probably date from the 1860s and 1870s (nearly evenly divided), while only 7% would be from 1880s (and more than half of those from 1880 to 1883), and the remaining 3% from 1890s. I have never seen an American CDV that I could firmly attribute to the 1850s, nor to post 1900, though no doubt a few such rare examples exist. I have seen French CDVs from the 1850s, and CDVs from several European cities that date to the 1900 to 1915 period.

Photographer Imprints

Four Photographer Imprints of Increasing Complexity from CDVs

Early in the history of the carte de visite photographers realized that the standardized card mounts made a wonderful platform for self-promotion. Printers provided pre-cut card stock for mounting photographs with the name and address of the photographer printed on the back. They soon added an attractive front border of two thin gilt lines. A very small minority of photographers had their names and addresses printed on the front of the card.

As time went on the thickness of the card mount itself gradually increased, and the printing options expanded. The thin cardboard mount began to appear in different colors, and glossy surface papers were used for the upper layers of the cardboard. The photographers imprint was first surrounded with a simple cartouche, then increasingly complex graphics were included. For a while there was a return to simplicity, with just the photographer’s surname on the back of cards, in large flowing diagonal script.

The changing styles and motifs came and went, and today provide an important clue to for the dating of these old photographs. The nature and significance of those characteristics will be the subject of future posts, so be sure to bookmark this site and return regularly, or subscribe to our RSS feed.