Oliver Sarony

A carte-de-visite advertising the studio of Oliver (Olivier) Sarony in the fashionable seaside resort of Scarborough in Yorkshire.

The following article appeared in The Photographic News on 26 June 1863:

‘We have received from Mr Sarony a handsome album of card portraits, amongst which we find some of the choicest gems we have seen. […] The photography and the artistic taste are, in all cases, good, and, in some, perfect. […] One of the especial features which strikes us is the easy, graceful, and natural posing, as well as the variety of effects, and absence of the common-place and conventional.

‘We have one striking illustration before us of the art power of photography. It consists of the portrait of a lady by Mr Sarony, and another of the same lady by another person. The latter presents a somewhat common-place, coarse, plain-looking woman; the former a pleasing, graceful portrait of a lady. One is angular, hard and square; the other is soft, delicate, and pleasing, if not beautiful. There are some of the pictures in this album, which, from the beauty of the model, the sweet expression, and graceful pose, the rich and well arranged accessories, and perfect photography, are amongst the choices gems we have seen of photographic art.

‘The frontispiece of the album is a clever idea, which, possibly, some others of our readers will be tempted to imitate. It consists of a card picture with a pleasing design, and made by the arrangement of card portraits. A pair of inverted cornucopiae [sic] form an arch at the top; from these are flowing, on each side, streams of card pictures arranged in good lines. A medallion portrait of the Queen, and the address of the photographer, are in the centre. A neat border, formed of card portraits cut into ovals, runs round the outside. The effect of the whole is so good that it will readily find a place in any album, where it becomes a capital mode of announcing the name and address of the photographer.’

An abridged version of the first half of this journalistic puff is printed on the back of the mount, citing the eminent source. Underneath this appear the studio’s prices for carte-de-visite portraits, and its opening hours. The final line informs prospective clients that ‘all cartes de visites [sic] delivered fourth day after sitting,’ which is a rare insight into the running of a studio.

Sarony’s own self-portrait appears halfway down the right-hand cascade of photographs.