Mystery Lady

I did a Google search for the address given on the card and this led me to David Simkin's site about photographers in Brighton http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Brighton-Photographers.htm

I e-mailed the picture to David and he sent back a very detailed reply:

Here are a few snippets of information relating to the small photographic portrait you submitted :
1) Mora - Photographer and Studio
The photographer's name of "Mora" was an invented one.
The origin of the Mora studio is quite interesting.
The studio was founded around 1891 by Percy Cocker Mitchell (born 1840 or 1846, London - died on 15th December 1899 in Hove, Sussex).
Percy Cocker Mitchell, who originally operated studios in the Lewisham / Sydenham area, established a studio in Brighton at 127 Western Road around 1890. Mitchell adopted the name "Mora" (**) for his photographic work the following year.
(**) NOTE [ "Mora" was the actual surname of a well-known Cuban photographer Jose Maria Mora (1849-1926), who established a fashionable portrait studio in New York in 1870 and I have always assumed that he was emulating this famous photographer. It was quite common for photographers to adopt exotic sounding names. Other Brighton examples include "Eugene De Fontaine" (William Kessler)and "Naroly" (Edward Carr).]
The studio of "Mora" continued after Percy Mitchell's death in December 1899 and it ventually became a Limited
Company. The studio of "Mora" at 127 Western Road, Brighton was in business for a very long time - from around 1891 until after 1939 .
2) The Format of your Photograph
The small format measuring 1.5/8" x 3" or 42mm x 76mm with rounded corners was generally known as the "midget" or "midget carte".
The "Midget Carte" was the smallest format available for commercial portrait photography. The "Midget Carte" format was introduced in the early 1880s, but these tiny photographs did not become widely popular until the 1890s. Measuring 3 inches by 1 5/8 inches, the "midget"
portrait was much smaller than the carte-de-visite and was significantly cheaper than the other popular portrait formats.
John H. Blomfield* *of Hastings was probably the first studio photographer in Sussex to advertise "midget cartes". In 1883, Blomfield was offering "/the/ / new size, Midget Cartes/" at 4s 6d a dozen. This was at a time when cartes-de-visite were sold for anything up to 10s 6d a dozen. In the early 1880s, twelve copies of a cabinet portrait would cost around 20 shillings. By the mid 1890s, the cost of portrait photographs had fallen. In 1894, a typical mid-range Sussex studio charged 10 shillings for a dozen cabinets and 5 shillings for a set of twelve carte-de-visite portraits. The same studio priced the Midget portrait at 3s 6d per dozen.

3) The portrait of a member of your family
I would suggest that the portrait of the young woman dates from around 1892 and so was produced at the very beginning of Percy Cocker Mitchell's / Mora's career in Brighton. The style of the young woman's hat and clothing suggests the period 1890-1893. This date would be consistent with the format of the photograph - "Midget" photographs were very popular in the period 1890-1902.
If you want to try to identify the subject of the portrait you need to look for a female in your family who was born around 1872 [ I would suggest a possible birth year range of 1870-1874 as the young woman looks to me to be between 18 and 22, but you could add a few years either side of the range].

This is another picture from Ada, so it can only be from the McCann or Mackie line. (There is an outside chance it could be a relative of Ada's second husband Bill Warden.) But I don't have any ladies born near those dates in either tree. Also, the formal nature of the portrait would suggest the sitter lived in or near Brighton and I can't place any of my relatives in Sussex.