Antique Paris Cabinet Card — A. Liébert, 6 Rue de Londres — Fashionable Belle Époque Woman, c. 1890s–1900s

Original cabinet card portrait by Alphonse Justin Liébert (1826–1913), the Paris studio that branded itself Photographie Américaine. Front gilt imprint: A. Liebert / 6, Rue de Londres, Paris. Verso is the full ornate studio backmark: Maison fondée en 1863; Photographie Américaine; Photographie Inaltérable au charbon + au platine & à la pyroxyline Argentine; Hôtel Privé; Photographie à la lumière électrique; Téléphone No. 150-78. Printed by B.P. Grimaud, Paris.

Liébert was a former French naval officer who ran a daguerreotype studio in California during the Gold Rush, then returned to Paris in 1863. He photographed the ruins of the Commune, wrote La Photographie en Amérique, and in 1879 opened what is generally credited as the first electrically lit portrait studio in Paris — which is why this mount advertises night sittings and “lumière électrique.” The Rue de Londres address was used for decades; the telephone line and electric-light wording place this card in the later period of the studio, roughly the 1890s into the early 1900s (the firm failed in 1906).

The sitter is an unidentified stylish young woman in a dark tailored jacket with contrasting braid and frog closures, a high lace jabot, gloves, a chatelaine or medal at the waist, and a large ostrich-plume hat with floral trim. The pose — hand on hip, slight smile — is typical of Liébert’s theatrical and fashionable clientele. Not identified; do not assume a famous name.

Format: standard cabinet card. Mount measures approximately 4-1/4 x 6-1/2 inches (about 10.8 x 16.5 cm), confirmed against a ruler in the photos. Albumen or similar silver print on the original gilt-bevel card.

Condition (see photos — they are part of the description):

• Image remains sharp and attractive, with good facial detail

• Typical age mottling / silvering in the studio backdrop

• Light wear and rounding to mount corners

• Verso toned, with a small chip/wear at one corner

• No writing on the back of the card itself

• Not a reprint; original 19th-century studio mount

Sold as a genuine antique photograph. Sitter unknown. Suitable for cabinet-card collections, Belle Époque fashion, Paris studio photography, or Liébert / Photographie Américaine material. Ships rigid-packed.