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December 17, 2012

20 gorgeous Edwardian colour photographs

It occurred to me in the wee hours of the night not too long ago, as I was hard at work on a different post, while at the same time roasting a tray of chicken pieces for the next day’s lunch, that the years that most often springs to mind for me when I think of the winter are those of the Edwardian era.

Of course I can picture scenes and fashions other time periods during the frosty months, too, but there's just something about winter that calls to mind the first two decades of the twentieth century.

I think that reason for this stems from a few different of sources, chief amongst which is that when I was a little girl, one of my favourite Sunday evening activities was to curl up and spend an hour watching a beloved Canadian TV show called Road To Avonlea (based on the writings of famed Anne of Green Gables author, Lucy Maud Montgomery), that was set in the Edwardian period and which new episodes of appeared during the chillier months.

From 1990 to 1996, while this heartwarming family program aired, it was, bar none, my favourite show and one which I still delight in watching reruns of sometimes - particularly during the winter months, while I hunker down inside and take refuge from the wild Canadian weather beyond my front door.

On top of that, there's the fact that I spent a portion of my childhood growing up in a small house right here in Penticton that was built in 1909. While that fact in and of itself doesn't tie directly to wintertime, while living there I watched the second half of the Road to Avonlea seasons and often tried to find modern clothes that resembled those of the characters whose wardrobes I was smitten with. Think long high collared flannel night gowns, ankle grazing skirts, velvet party dresses, granny boots, and as many opaque, heavy stockings as I could rustle up at such a young age.

Further adding to the mix was the fact that (much like me) my paternal grandmother adored the Victorian and Edwardian eras and always included pieces designed to look as though they were made during those periods in her holiday decor. As we spent oodles of time at my grandparents' house each holiday season, I always got to enjoy being surrounded my by gran's especially lovely take on yesteryear fuelled Christmas decorating when I was growing up.

To this day, whenever the mercury starts plummeting and holiday tunes appear on the radio once more, my mind suddenly shifts a bit from it's usual 1940s and 50s mode to one of the genteel, elegant years of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, and as such I thought today - less than a three weeks away from Christmas would be the idea time to venture just a wee bit further back in the past than most posts here usually do and look at three tremendously lovely Edwardian colour photographs.

Though none of these images is distinctly wintery, as the Edwardians have been on my mind a lot once more, and I've been yearning to share these photos - which I think really speak volumes for themselves - since first encountering them a few months ago, I thought this first Friday in December seemed like a lovely time to do just that.







































(All twenty of these truly captivating Edwardian photographs were, as is my understanding, taken using an early method of colour photography called autochrome lumière. With the exception of this photo, which hails from the collection of Flickr user dovima is devine II, all of these images come by way of Lisby1 on Flickr. )
♥  ♥  ♥

So often when we think of the 1900s and 1910s, it's black and white images that spring to mind first and foremost and as a result it can be trickier to picture the world at the time illuminated with the came colours and vibrancy it has today. However, as invaluable captures like prove, the Edwardian universe was just as vivid as ours is today (and certainly countless eras before it have been, too).

Do you have a favourite amongst these Edwardian colour snapshots? I'm hard pressed to whittle my selection down to just one, and think that it's a tie between the very first and last photos above (which is why I placed them as I did). Each one tells a priceless story though and is certainly a perpetual favourite of mine as far as vintage photographs go.

Whether you're knee deep in snow already or are being treated to a mild December, no matter if you associate winter with the Edwardians, too, or not, I hope that you all enjoyed seeing these resplendent 1900s and 1910s colour photographs as much as I did, and that they'll inspire your early twentieth century related endeavours in 2013 and well beyond.

33 comments:

  1. These are just beautiful Jessica, I had to look carefully to check that they hadn't been coloured in post-production! It's so unusual to see colour photographs from such an early era, you'd be forgiven for thinking some of these were stills from a modern costume drama!

    Porcelina xx

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  2. As you know, the cooler months also make me long for Edwardian clothing too but I have yet to do anything about it, even though I do have an original Edwardian dress and a reproduction skirt I made.
    The oldest family photograph I have is Edwardian and I love my great grandmothers hair in it.
    I also loved Anne of Green Gables and so long ago now, stumbled across Road to Avonlea, but had no inkling they were by the same author. They're showing both over here in Blighty as I speak and it's a lovely nostalgia trip to take.

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  3. The Arenathletique photo is absolutely hilarious, I love it...!

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  4. Gorgeous photos! It's hard grasping the color photo concept. I'm so used to seeing all these lovely ladies in black and white. I love that we can see the colors and textures better but it does lose some of the vintage charm.

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  5. It's so strange seeing those pictures in color. But they are amazing! Thanks for sharing

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  6. Beautiful photographs! I have always loved Edwardian era, those beautiful gowns and big hats, oh so romantic..! I don't know which one is my ultimate favourite picture, they are all amazing, but I love the blue dress in the first picture. Thanks for sharing, there were some photos I have not yet seen before! :)xx

    Yours sincerely,
    Sara from Ladylike Delicacy

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  7. Thank you Jessica for this beautiful post. I love the Ewardian period more than any other, and the photos you posted are beautiful! I adore them all, and if I had to choose a favorite it would be the first photo. It would be awesome to live back then. Though there were tough times in the early 1900s, there is just a quality of life that seemed to be much simpler, graceful and feminine. I also enjoy watching period movies. Anne of Avonlea is also a favorite of mine.

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  8. Absolutely lovely photographs my dear! This is also one of my favorite periods, I grew up in a 1901 house myself! Funny isn't it? ;) My mother decorated the house in burgundies and dark green velvets, it was gorgeous! Especially around Christmas time, all of her decorations were Victorian and Edwardian themed and intigrated the color theme of the entire house, bright red was no where to be find in our home! It was so cozy and beautiful without being harsh and brassy like so many of our modern Christmas' seem.

    I used to watch that series all of the time! I'm still trying to build up a movie collection of the Anne of Green Gables, etc. but without forking over a lot of cash of course. Those sets seem to be fairly pricey. On a side note I shall post a picture of my granny boots in a future blog post, I love them to death! And I lucked out at about the age of 14 I believe, I found them at a local thrift shop for $5!!!

    Well take care and a lovely and Merry Christmas to you and your hubby my Canadian friend!

    xoxo
    Jessie Lou

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    1. Thank you very much, Jessie Lou. How wonderful that you got to grow up in an Edwardian house. My folks didn't really decorate our much in keeping with the period unfortunately, but had I owned it, I most certainly would have. Your mother's decor sounds absolutely gorgeous (burgundy is my second favourite colour of all time).

      One place you might be able to find the boxed sets for a lower price is if any video stores in your area go out of sale. Though I no longer have them, as a teenager one went out of business in my town and I was able to buy most of the seasons of Road to Avonlea for a few dollars per (VHS) set back then. So many video stores are going under these days, that it's possible you might be able to find some sets if one does so in your neck of the woods.

      Can't wait to see your granny boots! I have a pair, too, though they're not actually Edwardian (or Victorian). I suspect they're from the 70s or 80s, but they look really, really classic and far less New Romantic style than many from the 80s.

      ♥ Jessica

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  9. Wow, these are some great pic, Jessica!! I too LOVE Road to Avonlea and Anne of Green Gables. So in love with Jonathan Crombie. Aaaannnnnnnnnnnnddd!! He's still single, LOL! So I declare him mine!

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    1. Thank you very much, sweet Sean! I understand completely! As a youngster I was head-over-heels smitten with the character Gus Pike (played by Michael Mahonen) on Road to Avonlea. To this day, I think I'd blush like a schoolgirl if I encountered him in person. :)

      ♥ Jessica

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  10. Wow, those are fantastic. I don't think I could pick just one favorite. The beach scene is pretty neat. As is the photo of the two girls with the bike. Thanks for sharing.
    -Emily

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  11. Lovely collection of images. I always like the beach scenes, where the men are fully suited!

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  12. There is something quite whimsical about all these photos but my favourite is the beach scene with people all 'dressed up to the nines' for a day at the beach.

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  13. These photos are fabulous; you've out-done yourself this time! I absolutely adore all the dresses. Thank you for sharing x

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  14. Dearest Jessica, I grew up on all the Anne books (and the Emily books) by L.M. Montgomery and adored them...I too had the long white nightgown. My frineds and I loved the movie and fell in love with Tennyson and then John William Waterhouse as a consequence (the Pre-Raphaelite painter who painted hundreds of scences from Tennyson, Shakespeare and history). Road to Avonlea was a natural extension of all these Anne interest and it was so beautifully made-the scenery as well as the cast and storylines... such a great place to escape to. Here in Australia L.M. Montgomery's short story collection books weren't released until about 15 years ago and when I discovered them I found where many of the characters and plots came from. She wrote reams of short story work for the magazines at the time. So sad that she never got her own beloved family that she wrote about in her stories. Wishing you a very WEdwardian Winter.xx Shauna

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  15. Looking at these photos almost seems surreal. What an amazing collection! They are dreamy to me...like literally hehehe Btw I am a huge Anne fan too!! xox

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  16. Fascinating. Your blog is a treasure. Interesting to note how physically strong the women are; their lives required hard labor.

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  17. For me, the final photo is the show stopper, the woman who is seated is totally captivating!

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  18. If I could somehow wangle an Edwardian wardrobe, I'd dress in it every day. These photos just make me want to more. Gorgeous gorgeous images!

    Ruby xx

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  19. Lovely photos! I too used to watch Road to Avonlea when I was younger. Somehow all kinds of tv-series and movies set in a distant time always caught my eye.

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  20. I really love the last photo, but for the dresses themselves, the 2 solid browns are great as well as the little girl's low-pleated Pollyanna. It is certainly a stellar collection any way you look at them! So fun to see each photo and wonder about the lives of each person pictured!

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  21. There are very few movies that bring a lump to my throat but the story of Anne is one of them. Oh, such a romantic story. I thought the actress Meg (I forget her last name) played the part so beautifully. I need to re watch this series as I just loved it when I saw so many years ago:) I remember looking her name up because I wanted to see her in other movies.

    These photographs are fabulous. It's hard to believe some of them were not taken today. I also think the last image is so beautiful. A few months ago I bought an Edwardian dress. It isn't a glamourous dress, more of a day dress. I fell in love with the details. The dress I bought kind of reminds me of the lady that is near the house five down. This is such an interesting picture as you think you could see this exact background picture today. I hope one day to do a post on the dress I bought. It's a dress you can't put on by yourself as it has just clips. These ladies sure must have had to help one another get dressed:) And, then there is the hair, oh my!

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    1. How wonderfully lovely that you have a genuine Edwardian dress! I would love to own one myself, too, and by extension doing so ties into a larger goal I have and that is to have a garment from each pre-1960s decade of the twentieth century (ideally a whole outfit, actually, but a garment from each would be a great start!). I'm sure you'll be a vision of loveliness in your turn of the century frock!

      ♥ Jessica

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  22. Absolutely gorgeous photographs!! What a wonderful post!!!! :D

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  23. Thank you for posting these, as they are so very beautiful! Some of them don't even look as though they are from that era, other than costuming. I am glad the condition of some of these was preserved so nicely! Lovely!

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  24. It is such a tough decision; I love the ones that are not posed. They really let you see into what life was like, a frozen moment in time. The posed portraits are wonderful too, but whenever one is posing they are showing the viewer what they want you to see which is not always what actually is. They are all so beautiful though.

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  25. These photos are wonderful! Just gorgeous x

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  26. These are wonderful! I grew up watching Road to Avonlea as well and Meet Me in St. Louis (also Edwardian). Loved them both so much. My favorites from these photos (all of which are so interesting to see with color!) are the first photo (gorgeous) and the photo of the woman selecting a melon from a man selling produce.
    Jamie
    http://chatterblossom.blogspot.com/

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  27. You know what I love most about these photos? The women look normal. Not overly tiny, not overly large. Just...normal. Excellent selection of photos, and the colors are gorgeous! I'm planning to link to this post for my next Odds and Ends edition!

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  28. Thank you for theses as a lady who loves the Edwardian period clothing and also reproduces theses dress helps me a lot Beautiful

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    1. You are sincerely welcome. I'm delighted to know that you enjoyed and found inspiration in this beautiful antique photo filled post. My word though, it's hard to believe we're not terribly far away from three years having passed since I post it. How time flies!

      Thank you very much for your lovely comment. Have a terrific September!
      ♥ Jessica

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