Mirror Photo of Pier Alexander Spencer

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of studio portrait.

Name handwritten on the other side of this photo: "P. Spencer."

Added in different handwriting: "Pierre Alexandre Gilles Spencer, 5th son of Benjamin Rush Spencer and Angelique Marie Martin Spencer."

As indicated in the handwritten note, Pier Alexander Spencer (1866-1947) was one of the thirteen children of Lilly Martin Spencer (1822-1902), a popular nineteenth-century artist who "primarily painted domestic scenes, paintings of women and children in a warm happy atmosphere."

This type of trick photo, which is sometimes called a multigraph or photo-multigraph, used mirrors to make it look like a set of quintuplets was seated around a table. The distinctive table covering visible here -- with a fringe of tassels dangling over the side -- identifies the photo as one that came from the White Way Photo Studio in New York City. Compare this photo with other multigraphs from the studio, such as Mirror Photo of Woman Playing Cards, White Way Photo Studio, New York, N.Y., and Moustachioed Mirror Man, White Way Photo Studio, New York, N.Y.

For additional examples of multigraphs, see my Mirror Photos album.