Dating Portraits - Card Color

Again, we have not yet examined the question of how well (if at all) Darrah's color criteria for CDV's apply to Cabinet Cards or other formats.

In any case, it seems that card color may provide a clue to age, though you may need some experience working with large numbers of cards to understand what color is meant by some of these terms.

Dating:

The earliest cards (1858 - 1869) were on white cards, though as mentioned those are often darkened or yellowed with age. White was also commonly used 1871-74, though on thicker cards.

Gray or tan cards were used 1861-66.

Gray was also common 1872-80, though on a thicker card.

And "soft" gray was again used, on very thick cards, 1902-1910.

Yellow was common 1869-74.

A variety of pale colors, lavender, green, blue, etc. were used 1873-1910. Some of these have one color on front, and another on the back.

Chocolate brown or black cards were used 1877-87.

Observations:

Despite the ambiguity of color names, many of Darrah's color criteria seem to be highly reliable indicators.