Featured Help date this photograph, please?

Wondering if anyone can help me date this image... UK photograph of a man in academic dress. I've done a lot of searching for the style of robe/hat and think it's PhD regalia, but can't pin it down to a particular University. His trouser turn-ups suggest 1940s to me, while the glasses are possibly earlier?

The photo is glued to a board backing, but there's no information on it at all. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

That's tough. Just not a lot to go on. Try doing some research into collar shapes. (Rounded edge makes me think earlier rather than later.)

Debora

 

Thanks... I just noticed the collar shape, now that you've pointed it out! And the jacket has round front edges too. Looks like the jacket and trousers might be different colours (shades of grey!)?

I'm interested in getting a date because of some copyright issues I've come across... wow, copyright is SO complicated! But I need the help of people more knowledgable about costume/fashion than I am

All help is appreciated

 

Just looking at the glasses, I am going to guess 1920s - 30s.
Maybe 20s looking at the hat.

 

The "hat" is a Tudor bonnet. Still worn today in academia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_bonnet

Debora

 

Ooh, I like this... earlier is better! Thanks

This is great, thank you! I saw the term 'bonnet' somewhere, but somehow missed 'tudor' and the wiki page, so my searches didn't find much...

 

Most photographs glued to cards or boards tend to be 1930s or earlier. If by board, you mean it's in a folder, those go a little later. [Never mind that last part... you said it's glued to a board, so not a folder most likely.]

Can you show a picture of the whole card? I'm not sure whether I'll be able to help, but maybe... Also, what is the size of the board?

 

I'd have guessed 20s too; look at how short his pants are. He's wearing high-waters.

 

You may be right. Vested suits, rounded-shirt collars appear to have been popular then.

https://vintagedancer.com/1920s/1920s-mens-suit-guide-boardwalk-empire/

Debora

 

Thanks everyone

I'm attaching the full item... the backing is a light weight card ('board' was probably the wrong word), but it's not as light weight as the usual presentation type wallets/folder. It looks like it's been cut off at the top though so may have had a front to it, and there's the remnants of some other paper on the back, so could have been stuck to something?

It's pretty tatty as you can see, and the photo itself is firmly stuck down.

Measures 20x14.7cm (photo) / 22x16.3cm (card backing)

 

Forgot to say... the University of London robes are looking very similar, especially the sleeves. They are the closest likeness I've seen so far

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dress_of_the_University_of_London

 

Yes, the card is a bit torn up... so it's hard for me to tell. And the card is not huge, but larger than a traditional cabinet card photograph. So I'm still thinking some time in the early 20th century but the card doesn't help enough for me to get closer.

With the edges of the card being sort of a deckle edge, I wonder whether the top edge was originally glued to something else (as, for example, a tipped-in illustration in a program?), or whether somebody later glued it to an album page and perhaps that is why it is chopped off across the top? -- Just musing, since it would be impossible to know.

 

Thanks, Fig... on closer inspection the back has definitely been glued to another piece of card or something. There's the strip of glue that you can just about see, and on top of it a separate layer of the torn card it was attached to.

I don't know if it means anything, but the actual photographic paper is quite sturdy (not the thin flimsy paper that I've sometimes come across).

The photo was with a bunch of others that were loose inside an old Victorian photo album. The photos vary in age, from 1870s to 1960s (at a guess) but I can't see this gentleman on any of the other photos, so no clues there.

I'm happy that the consensus age is earlier than I thought though, since someone has asked if they can use it and I hesitated due to UK copyright. As I understand it, the copyright of an unpublished photo by an unknown photographer expires 70 years after creation. I think I can safely assume this photograph is pre 1947 and therefore out of copyright

 

IMO, it's safe to say that this dates from before 1947.

 

Yep. Toothbrush mustaches were fashionable in the inter-war years and become unpopular -- duh -- with the rise of Hitler.

Debora

 

I think even Chaplin shaved his off. The nose mouse had to go when the idiot in Berlin made it his trademark.

 

Good point about the mustache!

 

I think 1920's too .. Joy.