Oh, she doesn't like you.
She hasn't even met you yet, but somehow you've disappointed her.
This antique cabinet card portrait features a young girl with possibly the most aggressively precise set of bangs I've encountered in this collection. Add the perfectly composed expression and tiny pursed mouth, and she's giving me Nellie Oleson before Nellie Oleson existed.
I don't know her real name.
I don't know whether she was actually a tiny Victorian menace.
For all we know, she grew up to rescue puppies and feed the poor.
But this photograph isn't helping her case.
The card was produced by Fowler, Photographer, 238 North 8th Street, Philadelphia, and the reverse is almost as interesting as the portrait. It features an elaborate illustrated photographer's advertisement showing antique camera equipment and the glorious declaration:
“The Original Fowler.”
Apparently there were competing Fowlers. Victorian photography drama. I would like the documentary immediately.
The reverse also advertises duplicate photographs at 6 for $1.00, which is a wonderful surviving bit of 19th-century studio history.
I have not done a psychic reading on this photograph, so she comes to you with her story still entirely unknown.
She'd be excellent tucked into a Victorian gallery wall, cabinet of curiosities, antique photograph collection, Halloween display, ancestor-style altar, or used for your own intuitive or divination work.
Condition
Authentic antique condition with substantial overall fading and warm toning from age. There is visible edge wear, including a damaged area along the left edge and wear/chipping near the lower left corner of the mount.
The portrait remains clear, particularly her face and spectacularly judgmental expression.
The ornate Fowler advertising on the reverse remains remarkably legible and is part of the appeal of this particular card.
Please review all photographs closely for exact condition.
