A new addition to my collection

I found another gem for my collection recently, it's a postmortem picture of a child from Belgium.

New French Post Mortem

My second birthday present from my parents was a lovely little French Post Mortem Cabinet Card (I chose it) its a small sized card, and I love it, its so delicate and beautiful.

Here I am holding it so you can get an idea of its size, I went through a phase of the bigger the better with the photos I was buying, but I'm getting much more interested in the little ones recently. There's something so fragile and delicate about the small ones that is so beautiful. I have another one this size and they look so lovely together, a good quality image in this size of cabinet card is just unbeatable! 

Here is a scan of the full thing, as I've mentioned it's from France, the child is posed outside judging from the wall behind. He or she has the typical 'death curl' in the hair and the face is just heartbreaking and slightly spooky. This poor child looks so fragile in death, hopefully this photograph brought some comfort to the parents and helped preserve the child's memory.

A terrible image

I started a new job in January, in StJohns, Worcester and I've actually become quite fond of StJohns, its nothing special at all, but there's something about it.
While I was researching for my dissertation a few years ago I came across a reference to a very unusual monument in StJohns church that I have been meaning to go and look for for the past 3 years and now I work down the road from the church I really have no excuse!

I wasn't even sure it would still be there, as I couldn't find much about it online, but I went to have a look, and there it was in the porch of the church and it took my breath away, it's absolutely stunning.
The monument is to the two sons of Thomas Hopkins, a hop merchant in the city, his eldest son John died in January 1871.
Thomas Hopkins had the monument made to include a photograph of the dead boy, aged 14 when he died, the photograph was taken by Francis Charles Earl of Worcester Broad Street, the image is large, 6 by 13 inches and is set in a monument with stone angels and a plaque to John and his younger brother Jonathon who died a few years after John at the age of 2.

I am currently reading the fantastic book 'The English Way of Death' by Julian Litten and the book includes a little bit about the image and he describes it beautifully

"Although he was obviously placed carefully on the sofa, the freshly pomaded hair is awry and could have benefited from a comb prior to being photographed. It is a terrible image, the child so patently dead and cold. Yet perhaps Thomas Hopkins and his wife took some solace in so commemorating the death of their eldest son" 

I photographed the monument and almost didn't want to leave afterwards, it really is so beautiful and completely heartbreaking.

A different kind of Postmortem Photograph

As regular readers will know I am a rather obsessive collector of Vintage postmortem photographs of Children. In alot of peoples eyes they are strange items to desire and to spend so much money on, and I can't really explain my love for them, except maybe to speculate that they are some kind of attempt to face my own strong fear of death, which is prehaps the same reason they were originally made.

I feel I should put a warning here that the images futher down the page are very graphic and upsetting

I am interested to a certain extent in all forms of postmortem and mourning imagery, and while browsing recently I came across some particularly intense and strong images of death on a website dedicated to the tragic murder of a mother and her two children.
It was the case of Jeffrey MacDonald who, in 1979 brutally murdered his two daughters and pregnant wife, the details of the case were horrible, and difficult to read.
The crime scene and autopsy photographs of the little girls, however, completely captivated me in a way that only the beautiful victorian photographs have done so before. The death of any child, in any circumstance, anywhere, is a horrible thing that should never happen, but it does happen, every day, in every possible way, and for some reason these images give some kind of comfort at the same time as being horrifying.

It seems wrong to me in a way that I was so captivated by these horrific images, but I was and I think there is an incredible beauty about them, if only to serve as a way to mark an event so horrible most of us couldn't even conceive it, but i'd rather look these things in the eye than pretend they didn't happen.

Jeffrey MacDonald is serving 3 consecutive life sentences

"Suffer little Children to come unto me"

"Be still, my soul, when change and tears are past

all safe and blessed, we shall meet at last"

Christmas Time

Its Christmas day! I've had a pleasant, chilled out day. My parents are watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special, which I don't like, so I decided to share my Christmas pressies on here.
I got two amazing postmortem pictures from my dad, so Chuffed with them.





The Man who sold these photographs said they were both of the same child. This could well be true, the children appear to be the same age and the wreath of flowers round the head on the one picture does look alot like the wreath resting on the childs lap in the other picture.
The only thing is I wonder why the two set ups are so different in background, the one in white with wallpaper behind, the other completely surrounded by Dark fabric. the mounts are also different, why would only one mount have the photographers stamp on it? I guess we'll never know for sure.

Recent Additions

The lastest addition to my postmortem family is this little baby

Easter Monday Flea Market

I've just got back from the Easter Monday Flea Market, picked up some more photos for my collection, I also got an Easter present from my boyfriend of the most amazing post mortem baby in a crib, so a good Easter for me.

A Lovely Edwardian Baby in a heavy frame



Creepy looking Siblings, especially the blurred girl, they kind of remind me of the twins from the shining



Stunning Postmortem of a baby in a crib, in what appears to be his or her Christening gown and bonnet



A stereoview of a mother and child playing 'this little piggy went to market'

New Additions to my Photo Collection

I have 3 new additions to my Vintage Photo Collection, the first two I bought for 50p each from an Antiques market in Oxford, the third one is an Etsy find

This one is a Christmas card with the message handwritten on the back, I find it so beautiful



This one seems to be a little novelty picture done at seaside resorts where you had a photograph taken with your weight on the top as you stand on Scales, kinda weird, but I guess people weren't so bothered by their weight in those days



and finally a print from an old glass negative of a dead child

Sleeping Beauty 3

So it arrived, my amazing book, sleeping beauty 3, I love it soo much, its signed by Stanley Burnes. Its a smaller that the previous ones, but I quite like its small size, kinda like a childrens book, but a terribly sad one.







It came with a postmortem CDV thats so wonderful and delicate, the perfect parcel arriving this morning, has made my day :)

Sleeping Beauty 3

Here is the book I want for Christmas, shame the postage costs more that the book! I hope it gets on Amazon soon so i can get it sent a little cheaper before it goes out of print and cost hundreds, I am lucky enough to have the quite rare 'Sleeping Beauty 2' and I want to add to the collection with this one



heres a couple from the amazing selection of postmortem pictures of children that are included

postmortem detail

I loved enhancing the childs face in my last post, so I am going to do the same with my favourite post mortem from my collection, there is no question here that she is dead though. I now have 7 post mortem photos, which I think is pretty good considering how expencive they can be

Original photo



detail - this gives me the shivers



I have reduced myself to tears so many times while going through my collection, i'm odd. But then again whats the point of collecting something unless it moves or effects you deeply

New Photograph

I've just come back from a little holiday in london with my Boyfriend. I had such a great time. My favourite part was spitafields market, such a wonderful vintage heaven. Unfortunately I am not very rich at the moment, so I couldn't afford much, but I did pick up this really interesting photograph.
I believe it is of a mother mourning for her dead baby, i wasn't sure at first, but she does appear to be in mourning dress and I have looked as closely as I can at the babies face, and its not looking very healthy!



here are some details of the babies face, I have enhanced it to get as much detail as possible. It was quite common for the eyes to be open in a postmortem portrait

1. unenhanced

2. higher contrast



3. Black and white, higher contrast

Little White flowers will never awaken you, not where the Black coach of Sorrow has taken you

Birthday gift

Well my parents got me a pretty special birthday present today, a totally stunning postmortem photograph, 13 by 17 inches, so its pretty huge. going to get it framed and up on my wall :)
The full picture


Detail

Highlights from my Old Photograph collection

I am a collector of Antique and Vintage photographs, I have literally hundreds and hundreds of them, ranging from Victorian to 1950s I mainly focus my collection on Children, but I also have many others, anything that catches my eye really, I thought i'd post here my most prized pictures from my collection, the gems I am so happy to own.

The first picture is a photograph of my Grandfather and his brother dressed for a local fancy dress party, as a clown and a black Minstrel. I adore this picture, the original is very tiny and one of a series including their parents in costume and costumes they wore to other events. As well as my many anonymous pictures, I love having pictures from my family aswell.



This Pair of cabinet Cards are so lovely, I bought them off the internet so I have no idea who they are, or anything about them. To me they appear to be brothers who have been photographed in some epic crochet collers their mother or Grandmother probably lovingly made for them.



This one was bought online from America, I just love the outfit she is wearing and the setting, she seems kind of spooky and strange, I wonder what event she was dressed up for, possibly a bridesmaid.



Here is my Indian boy, A small picture in large frame, which I really like. This little boy was brought back for me from India by a friend who went on holiday there.



This is one of my all time favoutites from my collection, its a Tintype in an amazingly elaborate frame. On the back there is a little information about him, his name is Charles and he is a freed slave, I am so taken with his handsome, jolly face and his wonderful outfit, I found him in an antique shop near Cambridge.



This is my favourite of all the Holy Communion photographs I have, I love her face and her pose, its just a gorgeous photograph, I bought this online from Lisbon.



Another lovley Holy Communion Picture, with a Brother and Sister, I unfortunately can't remember which country this was from, possibly Belgium and it was bought online.



This pictures comes from a Photograph album I bought online from France, its very faded, but I adore it, I love the border and the patterned cloth they are sat on.



This another one from the French Album, a brother and sister, possibly the children of the owners of the album. I love this mainly for their strange clown-like costumes.



Here is another picture of the same girl in the previous photograph, dressed again in her clown style outfit.



This is my first Postmortem photograph, it is particularly sad as she is again the same girl, who appears in the previous two pictures, it is sad to know she didn't make it to adulthood.



My next postmortem photograph shows an unidentified little girl propped on a chair, notice her vacant eyes and dropping jaw, also the cloth behind her on the chair, placed there to soak up any bodily fluids coming out of the dead body. This picture was bought online from America.



This next postmortem picture is one of my best, and one of my most precious photos, its so beautiful, showing the whole coffin surrounded by flowers, again this was bought online from America.





Finally, my absolute favourite picture, which I bought quite recently online from England, although it could possibly be an American image, i'm not sure. This a particularly stunning example of postmortem photography, with the slightly open eyes and sad pose, I like the unusual composition of this picture aswell.