I collect Cartes de Visites from the mid Victorian era. I am addicted to these little gems! I have lost track of how many I have, and have purchased nearly but not all of them from ebay. Once in a while I'd come across a seller selling cdvs of the same person or same family members in a combined lot, but not very often. Most cdv's I purchase are singles, and I've found matching people from different sellers at different times, which I find amazing.
On occasion, I've come across a cdv listing on ebay and thought, hmmm....that face looks awfully familiar! And lo and behold, I do indeed already possess that same person in my collection. Needless to say, I have an intrinsic need to keep these poor people together, so I give it my all in the bidding process to bring them home. Sadly, there have been some that have gotten away that I truly regret losing out on. This is the situation in the case of the images below.
They are of Amelie Beaufour, a little Parisian girl between 1861 and 1866. I lost out on her Confirmation photograph and her older sister's Confirmation photograph. I'm still peeved about it! The first four images you see here are the front and back of the Amelie Beaufour cdv's I have in my possession. The following three I found amazingly in a recent book purchase. I tried to contact the writer of the book and got nowhere. I really want these last three cdv's to keep them all together.
The following images of Amelie Beaufour are found in "Hats, Caps & Bonnets: 1855-1875; 12 Patterns for Dolls & An Illustrated History" by Marianne Burke.
Mademoiselle Beaufour was obviously a young lady of upper class, and her parents were able to have her portrait taken every year, and she's dressed to the nines in each image. Lucky girl! I do have more 'double takes' that I will post during the next few days. Amelie is my very favorite, because I am able to some degree watch this little girl grow up in another lifetime. Oh how I wish I were able to find more of her. I might get lucky!
Given that I am "post challenged" and have only posted lately when I've completed a little dolly, there's quite a span of time between posts! I'm a bad blogger and my resolution (meaning for about a week) is to be better about posting more frequently. In going over my blog and trying to see what's lacking, I realized that I neglect to share some of my other little hobbies and activities, which could certainly increase the number of posts between doll completions.
I've got about a million fabulous Cartes de Visites I've collected over the years, rotting away in their albums that I could dust off, and dresses made for antique dolls and for big people too!
However, in order to accomplish that goal, it's necessary for me to go trolling through my files and 'stuff', where I tend to get waylaid and forget why I'm there in the first place. When I 'snoop' through my own forgotten stuff, I could be gone for hours, days, weeks. So again, you might not hear from me till next month. But I'm trying, I swear to that.
I decided this Christmas vacation to relax and finally got a chance to go explore some amazing blogs I hadn't seen before, and that's so addicting! Like being in a candy store with nobody telling you to pack it in and go home already.
I have to spend a little time today on self-maintenance, meaning I can wait no longer to henna out the full 3/4 inch of gray hair that's crept up on me. Back to my real job tomorrow and I don't want to scare anyone. Heaven forbid they actually figure out I AM as old as I look. Of course, while I'm waiting for that henna to set, I'll be back exploring all the goodies you other fabulous bloggers have to offer! Should only take a few hours. Got another dolly drying out in the oven so I can't work on her, and I might as well enjoy myself this last day of vacation.
Thank you so much to all you wonderful people out there who take the time out of your day to keep up with what I'm doing, I really appreciate it! Have a wonderful, fabulous New Year, and don't kill yourself over those pesky resolutions. Before you know it, it'll be 2012 and you can make them all over again anyway. That's what I do.
