From my antique photo collection: Mattox family and friend
Here we see a wonderful cabinet card portrait — undated — but my guess is 1880s-1890s. It shows three men standing close together, with two of the subjects identified by a handwritten inscription, and the third person unknown.
This charming but intriguing portrait leaves us with some mysteries: Who were Lester and Bengamin Mattox, and why is the well-dressed but potentially roguish, fellow in the center unidentified?
I have researched Lester and Bengamin Mattox, but have come up with nothing about them — no census records . . . no find-a-grave records . . . nothing.
There’s no photographer’s mark on front or back to help us identify the location.
Since the person in the center is unidentified, I assume the handwriting was added later by someone else. It’s written in blue ink with a ballpoint pen. Ballpoint pens didn’t go into widespread manufacture until the 1930s.
The older gentleman, Lester, came for his portrait wearing a pair of pinstriped overalls with a shirt-and-tie, complete with a suit coat. His mustache would have made Wyatt Earp proud. The younger Mattox (on the left) bore a family resemblance to Lester, who I’ll guess was his father.
The young man in the center must have been a friend of the younger Mattox. With his roguish good looks, bow tie, and a cigarette dangling from his lips, he looks like the kind of friend who could get you into trouble.
While most cabinet cards held albumen prints, this one appears to me to be a silver gelatin print.