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| A Family at Afternoon Tea Underwood and Underwood, N.Y. 1855-1860 The Victoria & Albert Museum |
We’ve looked at stereographs from my own collection before, but here’s one from
the V&A.
To refresh your memory,
a stereograph is a pair of photographic images of the same subject taken
from slightly different angles. When viewed through a special “stereo viewer”
or “stereoscope”, these images give the illusion of a single three-dimensional
image when viewed through a stereoscope designed to hold it. They remained popular from the 1850s well into
the Twentieth Century.
Occasionally, these images were colored by hand in watercolors,
paints or inks to make them more life-like. In this case, I’m glad the image was colored
since it gives us an idea of look of a typical American, Victorian home. Here, we see a group which has been posed in
the act of taking tea from a silver tea set and china cups and saucers.
Domestic scenes like this one--of a model family like or of the institutions of
society such as school, church or marriage --were typical subjects of popular
stereographs.
This stereograph was made between 1855 and 1860 by Underwood & Underwood of New York, USA.
This stereograph was made between 1855 and 1860 by Underwood & Underwood of New York, USA.
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