Cartes de Visite

The Price of Cartes de Visite

A photographer of high standing might have charged 10s 6d £0.525) for a dozen for cartes de visite.

But some photographers charged only 6d (£0.025) per dozen, so bringing photographs within the reach of a far wider audience.

Ref:  Dr Ralph W Rimmer FRPS in an article entitled Poverty: A Subject for Photography:
  The PhotoHistorian, Sep 2003, pp.5-7

Materials for Cartes de Visite

An advert was placed in the British Journal of Photography Almanac in the early 1860s by The London Stereoscopic Co, 55 Cheapside, London.

It offered:

-  Highly albumenised paper (the same as used by the artists of the company):  12s per quire

-  Cards, plain white best quality:  10s per 1,000

-  Ditto with address lithographed on the back:  21s per 1,000 (first 1,000) then 17s per 1,000.

Gem Photographs

"J. Austin 'The American Gem Photographer' offered 9 mounted gems for 7½d.  His studio was at 13 Grainger St West, Newcastle from 1881-1882 and his mount advertises a branch at 75 Princes St, Edinburgh."

 Marcel Safier, Holland Park, Queensland Australia

Enlargements

From 1875

Cheap framed enlargements became popular in the second half of the 1870s.

Photographers, A & G Taylor, quickly set up branches throughout Britain, and started selling packages comprising a framed enlargement and 12 cartes de visite for 30 shillings (=£1.50) payable at the rate of one shilling a week.

Some local photographers sold similar packages with varying degrees of success.

Audrey Linkman:  Your Family Tree, November 2006, p.53

Cost of

Materials and Processing

Mid-20th Century

An article in the November 1959 edition of Practical Photography commented on the cost of photographic materials and processing.

By today's standards, the cost of photography in 1959 seems expensive.

The total cost of 27s 10d for a 35mm film in 1959 is equivalent to paying about £50 in 2005.  Average earnings were about £14 10s. per week in 1959 and almost £500 per week in 2005.

Enprints

Enprints were prints made from the whole of the negative without any cropping.  So their size varied according to the type of negative being printed.  Typical sizes for enprints were 5 ins x 3.5 ins, (or 3.5 ins x 3.5 ins for a print from a square negative.)

However in the article from which the costs below are taken, the enprint was described as being a little smaller - 4 ins x 3.125 ins (or 3.125 ins x 3.125 ins from a square negative).  The author commented on the price of 6d. for an enprint:

"It is nevertheless quite a good bargain when you consider that the next size up, which is a postcard, is only about ½ in wider and 1 in. longer, for which you pay at least 9d. and in some shops 1s."

1959

Black + White Prints

Film
Size

No. of
Prints

Cost of
Film

Cost of
Development

Cost of
 Enprints

120 / 620

35mm

20

5s. 1d.

2s. 6d.

10s. 0d.

36

6s. 10d.

3s. 0d.

18s. 0d.

1959

Colour Transparencies

Film
Size

No. of
Transparencies

Cost of
Film

Cost of
Processing

120 / 620

35mm

20

13s. 4d.

9s. 0d.

36

19s. 0d.

15s. 0d.

Combining Photography and

Other Businesses

Late 1800s

The competition between photographers may have made it difficult for some to earn their living entirely from photography.

Bagpipes

In Edinburgh, John Center was listed in the trade directories as:

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Hairdressing

A little further north in Broughty Ferry, Angus, RTM Allan combined the occupations of Photographer, Perfumer, Hairdresser  and Fancy Goods Importer.

He lists his occupations on the back of his carte de visite, below.  Please click on the images below to enlarge them.

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Chart of Sizes

A few examples of

Plates, Negatives and Prints

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