Unique & Guaranteed

Click on the Wizard NOW to date your own photograph

For only £7.50, our unique, automated DIY dating Wizard will date your carte de visite or cabinet card. Really simple to do and SATISFACTION GUARANTEED.

The Wizard is based on the detailed and extensive analysis of over 10,000 dated cartes de visite and cabinet cards supplemented by examination of trade directory dates for over 33,000 UK photographers and 65,000 studio addresses.

The Wizard will date photographs from any UK photographer but now also includes unique, detailed, specific sections for dating all photographs by the following major photographers

• Hellis & Sons
• A & G Taylor
• Williams & Williams.

 The Wizard is simple – you just have to peruse the multiple choices and click where appropriate.

 

How Does the Wizard Work?

The majority of card mounts were produced by a limited number of stationery printers who then customised them for a particular photographer by adding name, address, patrons, medals and various other individual requirements. Therefore, a particular design of card mount used in Manchester would be used at approximately the same time in York and Brighton as well – in fact countrywide.

Many characteristics were short lived as new mount designs and features were constantly introduced by the printers to encourage photographers to buy more mounts so as to remain up to date and in fashion.

Whilst a ‘not before’ date can be accurately established for any particular attribute, allowance has been made in the calculations for the fact that some photographers would take longer to use up their stock of card mounts than others.

Some card mounts were produce by local printers and may not conform to the styles of the national providers. However, the wizard will usually date your photograph to within a period of 9 years, and often more closely than that. If it does not do so, because your photograph is one of the exceptions, we will custom date it personally for you at no extra cost.

To read more about how the Wizard works, see our free download How the Photo Dating Wizard Works.

Explore the world of Victorian cartes de visite and cabinet cards – see all of the most popular designs. Just a few examples are shown below to whet your appetite!

 Click here to go to the Wizard!