Small 'Stamp Photo Album' - any ideas?

I was excited to pick up this small album today - it measures just 9.5 x 8.5cm and contains 48 portraits, each of which is tiny at about 3 x 2cm on average. The person I bought it off thought they might have been photos for lockets? I've (very gently) prised the loosest ones out and a couple are stamped on the reverse with 'Black & White, Manchester' and 'E. J. Care, Beswick' (UK). Two of the ones I managed to extract are perfectly round, as if they've been stamped out by machine rather than hand cut. I love them. Has anyone seen anything else like this?

A quick google search came up with a similar album where the webpage is no longer available, and a link to the very same album that had previously been listed on eBay. But that's all I could find. So any thoughts are appreciated .

 

Late 19th to very early 20th C. Similar in construction and graphics to early cigarette card albums.

 

Thanks... were the albums specifically made for these tiny photos? I'm only really familiar with CDV-sized photos or the small tintypes.

 

Oh my goodness, what "little" jewels you have found.

I love the photos and the album which holds them.

 

Must have been made for a 'niche' market. I have never seen one.

 

How interesting! I have not seen anything like this before. Early 20th century, I think. Er, I see that AF mentioned very late 19th century. That is possible for some of these, too. Might get a better sense of the date range with more examples.

 

Thanks Fig, glad you find it interesting too! Here are a few more photos - a bit blurred in places because I'm still getting to grips with a new camera ;-)

 

I have some family photos around that size. That one poor girl...I hope someone styled her hair better later on.(LOL) From the hair and the clothes, 1890s is probably dead on. That one shot I'm betting is commercial or someone who was commercial...it's Victorian cheesecake.

 

With just the head shots I think it's safest to keep it at late 1890s-early 1900s. Thanks for adding more photos!

 

The 1890's dates suggested by the posters above seem to be exactly right, as I found an 1894 'photo-engraving company' ad that said: "Our stamp photos are the size of a Postage Stamp, gummed on the back and brilliant finished. This photo can be used for thousands of different purposes, you can attach them to your locket, watch, hat, books, on all kinds of cards, as birthday, engagement, wedding, Christmas and New Year cards, etc., etc."

 

...and the 1894 ad noted which groups or people could use their stamp photo services, such as teachers, business men, baseball teams, etc. They reported: "We copy these Photos from Photographs, Drawings, Tin-Types, etc., we also copy one separate party out of a group...Send us your best picture and in eight days you will have your original picture returned with the Stamp Photos..."

 

First let me say I know that it is not but . . . re the next-to-the-last photo in the first post in this thread --

do the young boy's eyes remind any others of the eyes of Edward VIII (Duke of Windsor)?

 

The photographer of about 7th pic down, girl with glasses, is

E.J. Care (probably Ernest John)
294 Ashton New Road, Breswick, Manchester
Branches: 79 Stretford Rd., City; and 50, Ashton New Road, Beswick.

I found Care's name listed on the following Photographers of Great Brirain & Ireland 1840-1940 website, but for the life of me can't find any more info about him on this site even though at the top of the page it says

"We have information about all of the photographers listed below – this could include addresses, dates of operation and actual examples of their work, biographical notes, census information, prize medals awarded etc."

I think you have to pay something or join to get more info.

Here is a mention of photographer E.J Care of Beswick, Manchester.
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/76e10a9f-cb58-49c1-9804-eadece661108

--- Susan

 

Welllll, just noticed you all ready knew the photographer's name & location in your original post. Sorry.

--- Susan

 

Wow, thanks everyone! I'm glad you like the album. I found an old newspaper article that refers to 'photo stamps' which seemed to be a fashion around the 1890s/1900s - a persons portrait on a fake postage stamp. So presumably this little album would have been used to collect them. In this case, tiny photos have been collected instead.

Don't be sorry! Thanks for posting the information. I got as far as you did when researching EJ Care, and came to a pay-for-information page. Too expensive for me! Although I've only had a selection of the photos out of the album, there's a definite Manchester connection. I was hoping for one or two with people's names on, but no luck so far!

Yes! He has the same kind of heavy-lidded look. I love this one, and the little outfit he's wearing

Thank you! We've found similar information from different sources, but I didn't come across the photo-engraving company; you've found much more detail than I did! People obviously loved 'collecting' even then. I'm sure I would have collected these... actually, that's kind-of what I'm doing!!!

Thanks for the date range... I love the breadth of knowledge on this forum!

There are some great hair styles in the album - including a few that look like they stepped off a star wars movie set. Haha!