20 gorgeous Edwardian colour photographs

It occurred to me in the wee hours of the night not too long ago, as I was hard at work on a different post, while at the same time roasting a tray of chicken pieces for the next day’s lunch, that the years that most often springs to mind for me when I think of the winter are those of the Edwardian era.

Of course I can picture scenes and fashions other time periods during the frosty months, too, but there's just something about winter that calls to mind the first two decades of the twentieth century.

I think that reason for this stems from a few different of sources, chief amongst which is that when I was a little girl, one of my favourite Sunday evening activities was to curl up and spend an hour watching a beloved Canadian TV show called Road To Avonlea (based on the writings of famed Anne of Green Gables author, Lucy Maud Montgomery), that was set in the Edwardian period and which new episodes of appeared during the chillier months.

From 1990 to 1996, while this heartwarming family program aired, it was, bar none, my favourite show and one which I still delight in watching reruns of sometimes - particularly during the winter months, while I hunker down inside and take refuge from the wild Canadian weather beyond my front door.

On top of that, there's the fact that I spent a portion of my childhood growing up in a small house right here in Penticton that was built in 1909. While that fact in and of itself doesn't tie directly to wintertime, while living there I watched the second half of the Road to Avonlea seasons and often tried to find modern clothes that resembled those of the characters whose wardrobes I was smitten with. Think long high collared flannel night gowns, ankle grazing skirts, velvet party dresses, granny boots, and as many opaque, heavy stockings as I could rustle up at such a young age.

Further adding to the mix was the fact that (much like me) my paternal grandmother adored the Victorian and Edwardian eras and always included pieces designed to look as though they were made during those periods in her holiday decor. As we spent oodles of time at my grandparents' house each holiday season, I always got to enjoy being surrounded my by gran's especially lovely take on yesteryear fuelled Christmas decorating when I was growing up.

To this day, whenever the mercury starts plummeting and holiday tunes appear on the radio once more, my mind suddenly shifts a bit from it's usual 1940s and 50s mode to one of the genteel, elegant years of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, and as such I thought today - less than a three weeks away from Christmas would be the idea time to venture just a wee bit further back in the past than most posts here usually do and look at three tremendously lovely Edwardian colour photographs.

Though none of these images is distinctly wintery, as the Edwardians have been on my mind a lot once more, and I've been yearning to share these photos - which I think really speak volumes for themselves - since first encountering them a few months ago, I thought this first Friday in December seemed like a lovely time to do just that.







































(All twenty of these truly captivating Edwardian photographs were, as is my understanding, taken using an early method of colour photography called autochrome lumière. With the exception of this photo, which hails from the collection of Flickr user dovima is devine II, all of these images come by way of Lisby1 on Flickr. )

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So often when we think of the 1900s and 1910s, it's black and white images that spring to mind first and foremost and as a result it can be trickier to picture the world at the time illuminated with the came colours and vibrancy it has today. However, as invaluable captures like prove, the Edwardian universe was just as vivid as ours is today (and certainly countless eras before it have been, too).

Do you have a favourite amongst these Edwardian colour snapshots? I'm hard pressed to whittle my selection down to just one, and think that it's a tie between the very first and last photos above (which is why I placed them as I did). Each one tells a priceless story though and is certainly a perpetual favourite of mine as far as vintage photographs go.

Whether you're knee deep in snow already or are being treated to a mild December, no matter if you associate winter with the Edwardians, too, or not, I hope that you all enjoyed seeing these resplendent 1900s and 1910s colour photographs as much as I did, and that they'll inspire your early twentieth century related endeavours in 2013 and well beyond.