Most likely sisters, this moody interior portrait is uncommon for amateur work of the period because the photographer instructed his subjects to avert their gaze to the camera. The woman at left holds what is believed to be a folded fan while her companion has a ball of yarn in her lap. The photograph may have been printed on commercially available pre-sensitized Venus paper manufactured by the Peerless Blue Print Co., and was included in a cardboard box of this brand expiring in 1899 when acquired from an Indiana seller by PhotoSeed.

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