Peter's Story

Alfred and Dora got married in 1914, more than a hundred years before their son Peter would see their wedding photo. Now restored to its former glory, the picture has been framed and takes pride of place on his sideboard.  

“My sister was keeper of all the family history archives”, Peter says, “which we discovered when she died last year out in Spain. I and my two daughters spent a week out there, when we had the time-consuming task of dealing with her assets and going through all her possessions.”

Despite searching online, Peter has yet to discover the name of the church. “I only know that the wedding took place on Boxing Day 1914, in Bristol – where I was born. Dad was in the army and spent time abroad and was one of the lucky ones who survived!”

It is only a little picture. Just 9 cm by 6 cm without its mount. But it was immediately clear that, behind the surface decay and an unfortunate crease, lay a photograph of quality and beauty. Of sufficient quality, in fact, to stand enlarging to 18 cm by 12 cm.

Peter kindly wrote to me afterwards. “We can’t say how delighted we are with the quality of the reproduction of my parents' 1914 wedding photograph. The sepia brown original was small and badly creased; and the picture quality was so poor. Your work copying and restoring has amazed me and everyone who has seen it. I have mounted the larger one in an appropriate frame and it looks fantastic; it’s currently standing on the sideboard well out of direct sunlight. The smaller one will shortly be included in my family tree project, which is very short of pictures going back that far. I only hope this generation with all their digital cameras and smartphones will keep some of the thousands of pictures they take, for their children to be able to see what we are now seeing thanks to your brilliant photograph restoration work with my parents.”

If you have a treasured old photograph, contact Restoring Glory today to start out on your own amazing journey.