Four studio portraits of a vaudeville performer named Jessie. Adelaide, late 1890s.

Four albumen print photographs, cabinet card format, 161 x 103 mm (mounts); rectos all with the embossed silver imprint of ‘T. Duryea, 51 Rundle Street, Adelaide’; to the verso of one is a dedication inscription in ink written by the sitter which has been scratched out (possibly by a jealous later partner?), of which we can still make out the words ‘To [….] with best love from Jessie’; all are superb prints with beautiful tones; the mounts are clean and stable.

An interesting quartet. We believe this young female performer dressed in stage costume – including gypsy attire, with a cigar – may be local Adelaide vaudeville performer Jessie Thorne, who was a member of the Elite Vaudeville Company.