Alleged Brontë sisters photo stirs interest

wfgodot

Former Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
30,166
Reaction score
718
The story and picture(s) at Daily Mail:

Is this the only photo of the three Brontë sisters? Collector who
bought picture for $25 on eBay believes it shows sibling novelists

---
Mr Seamus Molloy, from Halifax, West Yorkshire, claims that by using photo enhancing software he has identified the word ‘Bells’ on the reverse. The sisters used the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.

Yesterday Catherine Rayner, of the Brontë Society, said: ‘It would be wonderful if it is. It is worth investigating.

'We have discussed it and there is a possibility it might go forward for some sort of forensic examination.

'Most of me is saying I don’t think it can be them. But we are not dismissing it.’
---
 
I'm no expert, but the woman on the left looks older than 30.

And guessing by how old they look in relation to each other they appear more like mother and daughters than three siblings.
 
Wow - I was a huuuuuuuge bronte fan back in my teen years! I would love it to be them but it doesn't exactly resemble the paintings...
 
I'm no expert, but the woman on the left looks older than 30.

And guessing by how old they look in relation to each other they appear more like mother and daughters than three siblings.

Agreed. The one on the left looks much older than the other two. It could be mother and her daughters (no connection to Bronte sisters).
 
It's not as if Bell was an unusual name, is it, either?
 
I dug some old photo's up of my mom and her sisters, when they were teenagers. This is pretty durn close. Add in the factor that young women didn't wear make-up, or The Old Regular Baptists didn't, they appears to be as close in age.
 
as much as I want it to be them, I don't think it is
 
Seen this story in our local press (I only live 10 miles away from Haworth) but I'm not sure either - that said I don't think we can count the brother's painting as an accurate depiction of the three.

We'll never know for definite, sadly, unless someone comes forward proving it's their family and not the Brontes.
 
Now that one looks more credible @wfgodot! I always thought the two portraits of Charlotte were very different from each other but put it down to Branwell's - ahem - uneven artistic skills [emoji6]
 
I think I recollect Charlotte said in Elizabeth Gaskell's book that Emily always wore mutton sleeve dresses and point blank refused to adapt to newer styles? It fits, as Emily was the one who refused to ever give up on Branwell, refused to see a doctor until the day or day before her death and refused to have anything to do with the publishing world after Wuthering Heights had a poor reception.

Anyway, none of these women are in mutton sleeves so whoever they are, I don't believe any of them are Emily Bronte. Also, the undertaker who made Emily's coffin sad it was the narrowest adult coffin he ever made, she was so tiny. She was wasting away from consumption for a long time, so if the photo was taken anytime near 1848, they all look far too healthy to be Emily.

I can't be certain though as my first edition Mrs Gaskell book is yet another one I left behind on my travels. I bought it for less than a dollar in an English thrift shop too and I was so pleased at the time.

Also, none of them look the type to walk 10 miles on a windy moor and bite their fierce dog when it bites someone else, which Emily was also known for.

I have a few very old family photos and unless a family member has written on the back, invariably the only text there is the name/stamp of the photo studio. I personally suspect that photo was originally taken in Yorkshire at a studio run by the Bell family and never travelled far, until a distant, senior relative died recently and their house was cleared.

Only way to even partly prove it might be true is maybe to check through the dozens of Yorkshire trade directories archived by the University of Leicester, page by page, to see if a Bell photo studio was listed around the area, at that right time. I vote WFgodot gets the honor, for starting the thread. :)

Here's the link: http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/.../field/place/mode/exact/conn/and/order/nosort

Photo link:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nding-word-Bells-pseudonyms-hidden-image.html
 

Attachments

  • 2AA30ADC00000578-3165710-image-a-2_1437173747640.jpg
    2AA30ADC00000578-3165710-image-a-2_1437173747640.jpg
    148.1 KB · Views: 117
Here's the kind of back stamp I mean. I know it's German, but oddly enough I also have a few very early photos from Yorkshire, around this period. Unfortunately, I've left them at the opposite end of the country from where I am, so I can't post the backstamps. :(
 

Attachments

  • 20150719_224413-1.jpg
    20150719_224413-1.jpg
    80.3 KB · Views: 116
Only way to even partly prove it might be true is maybe to check through the dozens of Yorkshire trade directories archived by the University of Leicester, page by page, to see if a Bell photo studio was listed around the area, at that right time. I vote WFgodot gets the honor, for starting the thread. :)
snip

I think a Go Fund Me-like attempt should be made by all and sundry to raise funds for wfg to fly to Britain, traipse over the moors (in a Land Rover with all mod cons), and generally suss out the case here. Need research assistant also for that page-by-page thing. Meanwhile, I'll ask around in area pubs, get to the bottom of this thing.

Ready....steady....go! fund me
 
snip

I think a Go Fund Me-like attempt should be made by all and sundry to raise funds for wfg to fly to Britain, traipse over the moors (in a Land Rover with all mod cons), and generally suss out the case here. Need research assistant also for that page-by-page thing. Meanwhile, I'll ask around in area pubs, get to the bottom of this thing.

Ready....steady....go! fund me

I'll be the research assistant if I get to do the pubs and you get to do the traipsing across the moors. :)
 
Here's the kind of back stamp I mean. I know it's German, but oddly enough I also have a few very early photos from Yorkshire, around this period. Unfortunately, I've left them at the opposite end of the country from where I am, so I can't post the backstamps. :(
I had a small collection with all sorts of interesting backstamps (mainly in Spanish as the studios were in Mexico), sold then for a goodly amount on eBay. (Add this accomplishment to my vitae as another qualification for funding me, see above).

All set then! (Rubs hands gleefully, attempts to contact Acton Bell via Ouija board.)
 
Erm, I think I definitely should be wfgdot's assistant due the the fact I speak the lingo (Yorkshire) and we can easily pop back to mine for a cuppa ;)
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
146
Guests online
976
Total visitors
1,122

Forum statistics

Threads
589,933
Messages
17,927,859
Members
228,004
Latest member
CarpSleuth
Back
Top