This is a very rare view of the showroom of a miniaturist-turned-photographer, sometime soon after 1857, the date at which the carte-de-visite photograph came in: there are a number of this distinctive and exceedingly popular size of portrait in the frames displayed round the showroom. The furnishings and equipment of such showrooms are recorded in an early report of 1863, but views, either drawn or photographic - the costumes suggest it is about 1860 - are unknown at this date.

Some of the framed images around the room are not photographs but miniatures. So dire had the effect of photography been on the art of the miniature portrait that many practitioners turned to the new medium in order to make a living, among them Henry Collen, Queen Victoria's miniature painter. It is not possible to see whether the woman with her paint-box at the table on the left is painting miniatures or colouring a photograph. There was a popular compromise in photographs that were so highly worked by the colourist that they became almost paintings. This allowed for a degree of idealisation which the photograph was thought to lack. The portrait with its intricate frame backed with velvet and contained within a shadow box may be a very large miniature or a photograph or one of these coloured hybrids. The words 'Art Studio' on the showroom window suggest this may have been on offer as an alternative to straightforward portrait photography