Case Histories: The Packaging and Presentation of the Photographic Portrait in Victorian Britain, 1840-1875

The cased photographic portrait was fashionable from the early 1840s until the end of the 1860s. Around it grew a considerable industry supplying everything from simple leather covered cases, to sophisticated creations in moulded thermoplastic. This book looks at the photographic portrait from daguerrotype to carte de visite, and at the range of cases in which it was marketed. The cased Victorian photographic portrait was a sophisticated product, with the delicate hand-colouring of the image echoed in the colours of the protective velvet pad and trim with which the case was finished. Hitherto, the relationship between the portrait and its packaging and presentation has not been explored in book form. Case Histories also highlights British manufacturers of cases and trims, and identifies the only British manufacturer yet found who made moulded thermoplastic cases. Such was the importance of the cased photographic portrait, that moulded picture cases were one of the world’s first uses for moulde