Introduction by Mario Di Chiara, historical and genealogical research by Matteo Giunti.

The invention of photography gave the need for self-representation an innovative tool which, in terms of immediacy and affordability, soon surpassed the traditional practice of the painted portrait. From the second half of the nineteenth century, ever wider sections of the population began to use the carte de visite (hereafter cdv) to leave a record of themselves with all those personal and professional contacts they considered important for strengthening their place in society. Genealogist Matteo Giunti shares with the collector of historical photography Mario Di Chiara the wish to trace the lives of the people who passed through the very particular social and cultural setting of nineteenth-century Livorno.

By telling these stories through images as well, the Livorno cdv give new impetus to historical research, finally connecting faces to specific life stories. With this first post we begin together a fascinating journey into the past, one that has already helped many people get closer to the path taken by their relatives of that period.

In this post we examine two cdv by Ugo Bettini that bear little but essential information: the dedication “A Madame Vernière – Souvenir de Cécile Recouly née Roux” and the date “Livourne 14 janvier 1870“; on the other: “a Mr. Stanislas Vernière – donné p[ou]r souvenir – son représentant – L. Recouly“, with the same date.

Louis Recouly and Cécile Roux

From these meagre details, using several primary sources in Livorno and France, it was possible to shed light on the Recouly-Roux family of Livorno and also to find information on the Vernières, to whom the cdv were given.

Louis Recouly and Cécile Roux had married in Livorno on 2 February 1867, both still in their twenties. Louis, a sales representative, was born in Sète, near Montpellier, on 5 October 1837, the son of the plasterer Pierre Recouly (1797-1867) and Catherine Durand (1799-1895). His wife, Anne Jeanne Cécile Roux, was born in Montpellier on 22 November 1840, the daughter of the leather merchant and shoemaker Jean Xavier Roux (from Castelnau-le-Lez, not far from Sète) and Marguerite Félicité Sauvaire of Montpellier, who had married in January 1839.

The couple had three daughters in Livorno between 1867 and 1870, and a son (Jean) born in 1871. The daughters were Félicie Catherine Marie Jeanne (born 17 November 1867), Joséphine Marie Jeanne (born 18 February 1869, died 5 February 1870) and Augustine Julie (born 5 January 1870).

These details alone show how significant the date on the photographs (14 January 1870) is: Louis and Cécile, aged 32 and 26, had just had their third daughter, Augustine, and twenty days later they would lose their second, Joséphine. We will also see another significant event linked to 1870.
Cécile’s father, Jean Xavier (Italianised and shortened to Gio. Saverio), died in Livorno on 16 November 1875, in the house at Via Vittorio Emanuele 43, on the fourth floor, aged only 59 and already a widower. His wife, “Felice Savoire” (as she is named on her husband’s death record), had died some time before; when and where is not yet clear.

A short chronology of the family businesses

Going through the business circulars in the “Antiche Ditte” collection of the Livorno Chamber of Commerce archive also shed light on the couple’s working life.

On 15 March 1879 Louis Recouly, whose firm traded as “L. Recouly” (Via del Giardino 17-19), announced that he would continue as agent and depositary of the “Ferriera Stefano Masson e Compagni” ironworks and, wishing to acknowledge his wife, that he had changed the firm’s name to “L. & C. Recouly-Roux”. Cécile had in fact helped run the business for 25 years, first under her father Giovanni Roux and then with her husband.

On 4 April 1881 Stefano Masson e C. announced that it had become the Società Anonima della Ferriera Masson, with its registered office in Livorno and its management in Colle Val d’Elsa. The board of directors consisted of Cav. Avv. Eugenio Sansoni, Giorgio Enrico Aman, Giovan Battista Donegani, Cav. Pietro Fehr-Schmole, Giuseppe Franco, Comm. Edoardo D’Amico and Francesco Mimbelli, with Luigi Masson, the founder’s son, as director. A similar notice appeared in the Monitore Industriale Italiano of 3 May, which stated that the change had been made by public deed on 29 December 1880, followed by the Royal Decree of 31 March.

On 3 April 1882 the owners of the Recouly Roux firm announced their intention to retire to Sète, in France, where they had bought the old hardware store of C. Vitou, and so the management was left to their clerk, Augusto Corazzi, who had worked with them for many years.

Finally, on 20 April 1885, Corazzi, who had been managing the winding-up of the firm, took over the “Magazzino di Chincaglierie e Ferrareccia” (hardware and ironmongery store) to carry on the business on his own account. On 28 April of the same year the Masson company was put into liquidation, with Rodolfo Klein appointed liquidator for Colle Val d’Elsa and Ernesto Nagni for Livorno.

Louis Recouly died in Montpellier on 15 December 1902, aged 65; Cécile died more than twenty years later, on 7 May 1923, aged 83.

Who were the Vernières, to whom the cdv were given?

Etienne Stanislas Vernière was a leather industrialist, owner of a well-known firm in Aniane, near Montpellier, with branches around the world, including Livorno. Stanislas died in June 1870 in Aniane, his home town, just six months after the cdv were dedicated to him. His wife, the recipient of one of the dedications, was Henriette Sophie Joullie (1821-1882).

This brings us to the end of this first journey “from image to identity”. Its aim was to show how, in some cases, a simple and very short note on the back of a photograph can lead, through genealogical and historical research, to information about faces that were at first unknown and often faded, and whose only surviving material trace is sometimes that very “impression” on photographic paper.