Edwardian Woman Brass Era Touring Car Street Antique 1910s - Original Photo For Sale

An original 4x2.5" antique photo (NOT a modern reprint) from the estate of a vintage automobile photo and postcard collector. This was part of a huge collection of antique photos.

Photo Overview

A vintage snapshot of a young woman posing beside a large open touring car parked along a residential street of brick row houses. She wears a wide-brimmed summer hat trimmed with a bow, a light high-waisted dress with a long narrow skirt, and a dark sash. She rests one gloved hand on the car door as if about to climb aboard. Her clothing and the styling of the automobile both point to roughly 1914-1916.

The car is a five-passenger touring car with a one-man folding top, a split upright windshield, flush front doors, a long running board, wooden artillery-spoke wheels, and a sloping cowl blending into a long hood. These features are typical of mid-priced American touring cars of about 1914-1916, such as the Studebaker, Buick, Hudson, or Overland lines of those years. Shuttered windows, brick facades, and a front porch with turned posts give a classic Mid-Atlantic small-city setting. This is an appealing early motoring snapshot from the estate of a vintage automobile photo and postcard collector.

Historical Notes

Touring cars like this one were the family car of choice in the mid-1910s. They represented the move from the brass-trimmed, hand-assembled machines of the early 1900s to the streamlined, electrically lit and self-started automobiles that ordinary middle-class households could afford. Within a decade the open touring car began to give way to the closed sedan, and by the late 1920s most new American cars had enclosed bodies. That makes snapshots like this a record of a short-lived style of motoring. Women such as the one pictured were also taking the wheel in growing numbers during these years, helped by the electric self-starter that removed the need for hand cranking.

Print analysis

This is a vintage gelatin silver snapshot print with warm sepia toning. The tone, paper surface, and soft amateur focus are consistent with a print made at the time the photo was taken, circa 1914-1916. It is a Type 1 original photograph.

Condition

All photos and postcards we sell are in fair to excellent vintage condition. Please see photos for any tears, folds, smudges, or other age damage that may be present.

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