Cabinet card portrait of a woman identified as a cook

Unidentified · late 19th-early 20th century

A sepia toned cabinet card of a woman identified as a cook. The photograph is in portrait orientation. The woman is depicted in from the waist up. She is facing the viewer, staring into the distance up and to the right, with a smile on her face. She is wearing a lace, light tone blouse with a row of seven buttons down the front center and a lace collar. The blouse sleeves are puffed from the shoulders to the elbows. She is also wearing small, metal, drop earrings. Her hair is parted down the center and pulled up and back. She is seated in front of a cloudy photographic backdrop. The rectangular photograph is adhered to a cream color, rectangular, cardboard mount. The mount features two embossed bands around the photograph. In the bottom right corner is handwritten pencil text that reads [Guy]. There is a large surface loss near the top right corner and smaller losses along the right edge and the left corners. The back of the mount is cream colored, plain, and features horizontally oriented, handwritten, blue text that reads [Dear [—-?] / Our cook for 22 years. / Her son Henry, at first my bodyguard / and later my servant].