Do You Know These Men??

Our "new" place, is a late Victorian home, built in 1882 according to the landlord.  Current landlord is the fourth owner of the house.  He and his partner (a lot of people just have partners, and don't get married, even if they have kids together--very common) lived here for awhile, then started to rent it out.  Reportedly, when they purchased it in 2002, it was pretty overgrown, and needed some attention.  They gave it some, then started to rent it out.  It had been sitting vacant nearly a year before we came on the scene to rent it.  They were going to completely re-do it, but we asked them not to.  If they re-did it all, they of course could ask for a higher rent, and we have three children, who would not fully appreciate the work that went into the home.  I still question if they appreciate the piece of history they are living in.  Probably not.  Probably just a place to hang their hat.

We were doing some investigation prior to moving in, as to who built the house, etc.  We did some, but then the urgency of packing, and taking our summer holiday, and our annual trip to the US took precedence, and we took a break from our investigations.  A house of this age accumulates a lot of things, and landlord was good about removing most of it.  However, there were some pictures that were all wrapped up left in the cellars.  We asked if we could use them to hang onto the walls.  The answer was yes, so we dragged them up, and this is what we found:

Plaster around frame is crumbling:(  Paint also seems to be disintegrating



That's a bit of mildew on the bottom of the frame.  Seems these portraits have just been in the dampness too long.

The first portrait is 44/45 inches x 38inches, the second is 49 x 42 inch.  They are proper portraits.   We'd love to hang them up--in the front hall, or in the drawing room, or anywhere really.  But.  When we opened them up, the frame on the first is beginning to crumble, and the second had some mildew on it that's not the most attractive.  They both have seen better days.  It makes you wonder who the portraits are of.  No identification on either portrait.  We'll probably hang them up in the cellar.  Its pretty dark down there, so the light won't harm them.  As far as dampness, I think those pictures have been in the cellars for awhile, and I don't think the coverings around the portraits were protecting them from the dampness any longer.  If anything, they were holding the dampness TO the portraits, and not letting them breathe.  Some year....(when?? not sure...) we'd like to have a haunted house in this house, so we can have people go into the cellars, where these old portraits will be hanging, and freak people out.

The books in front of portrait number one the landlord recently brought over.  There are three tubs of the books.  The oldest books are from 1866, but most of the books are from 1904-1907 (the first owner of the book wrote his name and year in them), and then several more from the 1940's, from someone I am assuming is his daughter.  I'll have to investigate when I've got a chance, but first, probably should unpack all the boxes from the move......

If anyone has any ideas about the portraits, please send them my way.
Thanks for reading!