CDV of 1873 Gentleman with double-gilt border lines
This 1873 image of a blue-eyed young gentleman is just one of several I have from the early 1870s that have the double-gilt border line which most people think indicates an 1860s image. True, the vast majority of pictures with this type of card-stock date from that decade, but not all of them — some hold-outs (or were they just slow businesses with leftover stock?) continued to use these in the early 1870s. The tie style is more typical of the 1870s, and the size of the vignette definitely places this in the late 1860s to early 1870s as well. Oh yes, and for you eBay sellers: the Civil War was April 1861 to April 1865 — not all 1860s (let alone the many 1870s, 1880s images described as ‘Civil War Era’) date from the Civil War. And those tax stamps? They were required August 1864 through August 1866 — so many authentic ones are actually post-Civil War, and some dealers have stuck old stamps on images as late as the 1890s to trick uninformed purchasers.
