Thursday, January 27, 2011

Treasure Chest Thursday...Two Photos

The following two photographs are of my great-grandfather's brother, Archibald Marmaduke Beane.
Born 06 Oct., 1826 he died 31 Aug. 1899.

I received these portraits this week from a distant cousin who is descended through Archibald's BEANE line. I was thrilled to have these!

Take a look:

This photo shows us a 40-year old Archibald. Archibald was the 9th born child of William and Rachel [Wiseman] Bean of Monroe County.

I love the detail in this portrait.
First, he is posed in a relaxed manner, one arm resting on the side table, the other hand upon his thigh. His legs are crossed comfortably. Other details to note:
He has a moustache and a small chin goatee. In later years he wore a full beard. He has a rather unique hair style! His hair appears to be parted on both sides, with the center combed back, and then a small, short bangs present upon the forehead.

It is hard to tell in the portrait, but he may be wearing two shirts beneath the vest. Over the outermost shirt, he is wearing a lapelled vest of striped material. A watch chain is clearly visible, and appears to have a watch placed in the fob pocket. His outer coat appears to be a rougher, coarse material. Perhaps a linsey woolsey [this was most recent after the Civil War]. His trousers are tucked firmly into his knee high boots, which while very clean, do not appear to be highly polished.

He is seated upon either a chair or a wide stool with spindled legs.

The coverlet on the side table is printed with Victorian flowers.

This appears to be a studio portrait, but that is merely deduction and conjecture and is uncertain. And may be the earliest known photograph of Archibald.

A marvellous portrait!

 Here is another photo of Archibald taken in his later years. He would have been in his late 60's to early 70's in this photo.

Note the beard here, which was indicative of all photos of Archibald in his latter years. He has a low collar shirt on, which appears to have print design. He is wearing a vest over his shirt, which is striped. This looks to possibly be made of wool. You can clearly see the button detail. He is wearing a suit jacket with wide lapels. His hands are indicative of an older gentleman. Note the prominence of large, gnarly veins. He is slightly squinting, which may be due to lighting in the studio, or preparing for the flash of the camera.

A wonderful portrait!

Many thanks to our newly found cousin for sharing these!

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