Tag: <span>innocenti</span>

Tag: innocenti

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 291: Television, Shops, Furniture

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I’m tuned in to another episode of Sepia Saturday this week, featuring televisions!  You’d be shocked to know this is the only photo I could find with a television in it from my grandparents’ collections, this one coming from that of my grandma Norma (Innocenti) Rachocki who is sitting on the couch on the left with a small dog.  In the center, I think, is Nellie Gasparri and I’d be willing to bet that’s John Rachocki’s knee on the right.  No kids, so I have to date this to the early half of the 1950s.  Television out that way in central PA, at best, is still only about three channels.  Most areas don’t run cable for cable TV, so you have to rely on an antenna (Still, I know, it’s crazy).  The house is decorated up for  what looks like Christmas, and the house has a myriad of clashing prints between the wallpaper and carpet.  The TV doesn’t appear to be on, or perhaps the camera wasn’t able to capture the image on the screen in the photo, but Norma does appear to be looking at the television (or just not looking directly at the camera.  It’s very unlike the other photos we have, to have such a casual sort of photo in a living room type area – most folks didn’t use film this way and saved photos for special events and occasions, so it’s really rather precious.  I suppose I find a way for every family photo to be special because they all are to me anyway!

Short and sweet this week  as we  take it to the Sepia Saturday commercial break.

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 250: Street traders, artisans, shoes, tools of the trade, mending, hand-colouring

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While I am a little bit of a late-comer to Sepia Saturday, it’s pretty impressive that they’ve had 250 Saturdays of prompts!  Joining in on the fun has been great for me – it keeps me actively blogging and actively working on the thousands of photos in the collection.  I’m not kidding, thousands.  I really need to get together a post on the entirety of the big trunk one of these days because it’s SUCH a gem, but that’s something for another post.  Today I’ve decided to explore hand-coloring to fit in with the theme.

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But wait!  That’s not a hand-colored photo?  What gives?!  I’ve never quite seen anything like this before, so I wanted to share it.  The boys in the photo  appear to be Alfred Herbert Powis and Earl William Powis, Sr  dated probably at about 1900 judging on the apparent ages of the two boys.  They don’t look terribly amused, and the older boy, Alfred, is shooting daggers at someone just to camera right.  They’re set up to roll those hoops with sticks which was a popular kids game  over the course of many centuries.  On the back of the photo are specific orders for reprints including instructions for hand coloring!  I’ve modified the color/contrast to make the back easier to read, but as far as I can tell, it goes like this,

Nov 6.
Mrs. Alfred Powis
Blaine City, PA
Bust of both 20×16.  Hair both golden light.  Eyes blush gray.  Very fair complexion.  Cheeks pink.  White waists.  Little boys coat blue, largest boy coat gray trimmed with brown.  Don’t have largest boys looking down much and make face angle & light.

It’s probably not a perfect transcription of the very faded pencil on the back, and the initials at the bottom “WH” don’t match the photographer.  Instead of a photographic reprint, perhaps their mother was having painted or artistic renderings done from the photo.  I never have found the reproductions made from this photo, but it’s neat to be able to see what the colors of their jackets were in the written record.

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Here’s the hand-colred image!  This is of my grandmother, Norma Innocenti probably when she was about 15, so around 1936.  The colors used seem to be blue, pink, and green – pretty simple, but I’m sure it was an expense when times were difficult, to have an image reprinted and hand-colored.  There are so few photos of my grandmother when she was young since that side of the family wasn’t big into pictures.  Check out those shoes with the striped socks and printed dress!  I love it!  None of the other photos from this side of the family are colored in like this, so the photo is rather unique.  I’m told that there were never photos hanging on the wall or anywhere in the house while my grandmother was growing up.  It just wasn’t something they did.  Compare that to the family for the boys above that comes with thousands of photos, and my collection is REALLY lopsided.  However, that means that the few photos we do have from my grandmother’s family are extra special.