Ovinius Davis, 52 West Nile St., 1866 - 1907

A poor image probably from the early 1870s judging by the costume, sharing similar text with the two cards below. The design on the back is in gold ink. It is not clear which of these cards are the earlier.

The shared design on the back of the two cdvs above also suggests a date in the early 1870s, as does the ladies' (sisters'?) costume. A keen eye will note that the picture on the right has been reversed for artistic effect!.

The ornamentation on the cdv above and the use of large font diagonal for the name suggest that it was produced the late 1870s.

The cdvs below share a similar design, and the second bears the Edinburgh address where Davis opened in 1881. The possiblilty is thus that the first is just before this date, the second just after, though few Mason cards have been found before 1883.

The cdvs below shows a marked eastern influence, a fashion which grew throughout the 1880s with Japanese products becoming available for the first time in the west. It is possibly a card from the Edinburgh studio, though it is not known whether there were separate cards for each branch. No dates have been found so far for the Nithsdale road location, but these cards are probably still from the mid to late 1880s.

The copiously bearded gentleman below shares a similar form of text with the cards above, but is blank on the back, as are the ones below, so may be in between them in date.

The cdv and cabinet card below are of the standard 'dark and gold' form, and could have come from anytime between 1885 and 1895, but are probably late 1880s also - there is no hint of 1890s fashion in the lady's costume.

The cabinet card below, identified on the back as 'Dads Uncle Gilbert' , and carrying the number 31-821 is unusually made up of three layers, there being an embossed card between the mitred and gilded backing and the print. The Nouveau style decoration at the bottom suggests a date around 1900.

The cdv below with the textured card and the pre-formed location for the reduced size print could be of a similar date, since few cdvs were produced after the mid 1900s.

The one below showing the gentleman with the delicately upturned moustache is on a light coloured textured card with the text embossed rather than printed, a style favoured in the mid to late 1900s.