Photograph showing an interior of a portrait cabinet, French, circa 1880, depicting an extensive and varied collection of framed images, photographer unknown.

This photograph is of a room interior, focusing on a wall which is almost covered completely with a wide variety of framed paintings, prints and photographs neatly arranged in rows. This extensive display shows a variety of frame-shapes, sizes, and mounting methods. Also crammed into the room are lots of pieces of furniture, including a chest with tea-cups, teapot, bowls etc on the top. There are many different patterns and textiles in the room; floral wallpaper in a vertical design, a diamond checked fabric on the cushions, a heavy fabric curtain, embroidered foot stool and fabric draped over the tables.The photograph has a rich brown colouration which gradually gets darker towards the edges of the print.

Purchased with the support of the Julie and Robert Breckman Print Fund and the Cecil Beaton Royalties Fund

The photograph is apparently French from the 1880s rather than, as the vendor states, the 1850s.

This photograph reveals a room interior, focusing on a wall that is almost completely covered in a wide variety of framed paintings, prints and photographs of all sizes neatly arranged in rows. Also crammed into the room are many pieces of furniture, including a chest with tea-cups, teapot, bowls etc on the top. There are many different patterns and textiles in the room; floral wallpaper in a vertical design, diamond checked cushions, a heavy fabric curtain, an embroidered foot stool and fabric draped over the tables. Probably French and made in the 1880s (at a time when interior views were rare), this photograph tells us much about how people decorated their homes and displayed pictures at this time.

E.138-2005