Historic Opera

ROTARY PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATE SUNK GEM SERIES

The "Plate Sunk" name is derived from the method used to produce the embossed rectangle around the oval image. The image is accompanied by a few bars of music. The numbers are located along the border of the image and usually consist of a "P" followed by 4 numbers and then another letter, such as "P.1726F". Most of the subjects are of composers, and English vocalists or vocalists singing with English companies at the time. Published by Rotary Photo.

Poor Relatives

There is another similar looking series to the Plate Sunk Gems. They are of lesser quality, slightly darker in tone, have a different numbering system and aren't embossed. These cards were published by the GG Company, which also published many of the Geraldine Farrar postcards. In very small print to the lower left of the images are the birth and death dates of the subject. You can find more birth and death records with public records searches online.

• Franz Liszt - no. 2006 (at left)
• Max Bruch - no. 2007 (at left)
• Giacomo Meyerbeer - no. 2384 (at left)
• Pietro Mascagni - no. 2011
• Giuseppe Verdi - no. 2342
• Richard Wagner - no. 2428

Another variation has a simulated wood frame around the image. The image in the middle is not embossed, but the corners of the frame are. This series, also published by Rotary Photo is called "The Rotary 'Real Photographic' Opalette Series."

• Edvard Grieg - no. 0.3099.B (at left)

Postcards Identified in this series so far:

• Emma Albani - P1726 A
• Clara Butt - P1726 B
• Ada Crossley - P1726 C
• Ben Davies - P1726 D
• Adelina Patti - P1726 E
• Charles Santley - P1726 F
• Louise Kirkby Lunn - P1726 G
• ? P1726 H
• ? P1726 I
• Alice Esty - P1726 J (Cavatina - To Tell of Love So Glowing: Il Trovatore) Circa 1912.
• ? P1726 K
• ? P1726 L
• ? P1726 M
• Enrico Caruso - P1726 N
• Luisa Tetrazzini - P1726 O
• ? P1726 P
• Blanche Marchesi - P1726
• Camille Saint-Saens - P1742 C
• Richard Wagner - P1734 C
• Franz Lehar - P1740 E

I'm reasonably certain that the following singers were also featured in this set: Nellie Melba, Edward Lloyd, Edna Thornton, Andrew Black, Watkin Mills, Robert Radford, Kennerley Rumford (Mr. Clara Butt), John Coates, John McCormack.

There are also Plate Sunk Gem postcards without the musical notations. The Kennerley Rumford family was a frequent subject:

• Clara Butt, Rumford, and three of their children - P269 B
• Clara Butt - P269 H
• Clara Butt and Rumford - P269 I