File talk:Eddington Kent 1908.jpg

@Acabashi: @Storye book: I'd be very pleased to hear your opinions about this. I think this is what was described at the time as a Ladies Phaeton. It is very much lady-sized. I can only account for the liveried man by suggesting that his unusual seating arrangement, facing back and kind of squatting on (perhaps) the phaeton's folded dickie seat (he has a foot rest though), may be because the lady liked to drive herself but lacking confidence she took along a servant in case she had trouble with the horse? Horse beautiful but skittish? This is an owner-driver conveyance. If the servant was driving the lady would have been sitting beside him? Its the footrest that intrigues me, I think he is meant to be there like that. Eddaido (talk) 10:16, 14 May 2018 (UTC)

Here you can see a very similar vehicle for sale, this one made about that same time by Guiet & Cie, Paris. Not an inexpensive firm as coachbuilders go.

I notice the step up to the seat on the left hand side is unusually low, very close to the ground. Maybe she is an invalid and the servant is to help her where necessary? Do you see how vivid your own imagination could be too? Eddaido (talk) 00:57, 15 May 2018 (UTC)

I think it's worth bearing in mind that all or most of the historical postcards of this scene were commissioned and sold by the post office which you can see in the background (white weatherboarding/clapboard).

If you look at some of the other coloured pre-1914 ones which were enhanced in Bavaria, you can see that the artist often added in a focal point in the road, because that was a large empty space in the foreground of the picture. The phaeton is clearly in the original photograph, but it is almost certainly staged for the same reason - and when you stage things, anomalies tend to creep in. The post office was very conveniently on the approach road between the London road and the popular resort of Herne Bay, and no doubt netted a lot of passers-by during the heyday of the picture postcard. It was in their interest to make those postcards attractive.

What is more interesting for me is the smithy behind the phaeton - an obvious place to stage a stop with the horse. In at least one other postcard you see a woman standing at the smithy door, but never the smith himself. In this postcard there is a tantalising board over the smithy door, which is too blurry to read.

Another interesting element is the group of people approaching where the road curves in the distance. It appears to be a well-dressed man with two or three women in white following behind. I get the feeling that he has stopped and is holding out his cane or swagger stick to stop his family, because he can see the camera and tripod set up in the road ahead. Unseen and behind the walking group were two big private schools and one of those schools was previously a big private house. Behind the camera and to the left was (and still is) another big private house. No doubt well-dressed visitors came and went from there. So we get a tiny glimpse of real life happening. Storye book (talk) 07:25, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

Thank you! I really like all that. I went directly to Google maps street view and the continuity was downright heartwarming. 110 years and its pretty much all still there though the former Post office has swallowed the building behind the blacksmith's. And I suppose the cameraman chose his so photogenic view carefully. What would the road surface have been? Just gravel? Aside from the horse leavings it is remarkably even and tidy or would there have been so little traffic vehicles kept to no particular path?

Busy Bavarians? I live near here now but earlier I lived near here and very well remember the day or so after this photo was taken when the "Indefat" was tied up to the wharf on the exact spot where these baths once were and we went on board as a family to please an aircraft-mad elder brother.

I'm afraid the little family seems to be entirely on its own and the grass between the ailing shrubs unkempt. Those photographers worked hard to make their postcards. Many thanks, Eddaido (talk) 08:51, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

Re the tidy state of the road in the Eddington postcard.

Those post office postcards were mostly heavily edited, including the one we are discussing. The photographer would have used a field camera and a glass half-plate. This means that the image could be edited directly on the glass plate, before developing the picture. For a black and white picture (or sepia) ordinary pen and ink would produce a white mark on the final picture. White ink would produce a black or dark mark. They could produce quite subtle effects with this if they used a fine brush made for watercolour work. The primary use of glass plate editing on postcards was for labelling the picture with the location name, and for outlining blurred and distant elements of the image, such as roof and chimney outlines. And of course you could remove the horse-droppings, ruts and puddles from the road. You could even remove people. At least one of these post office postcards has the remains of an erased person in the hedge in front of the post office.

I should add that in those days labour was cheap. Tidiness around your home and business earned respect, and employees would regularly sweep and then dampen dusty roads outside the business entrance. Straw would be put down on mud outside the business entrance. Storye book (talk) 07:12, 19 May 2018 (UTC)