Not driving horses

I know it’s happened to all of you.  You look at something over and over and over again and then, for whatever reason, you look at it again and see something new.  Case in point is this photograph of two gentlemen in a carriage.



Not much to go on, right?  So I just kept pushing it aside until today when – duh – I turned it over and saw this.



Oh look at that – and in my grandmother’s handwriting, no less!  Abe and Gus Gunzendorfer, Father and Uncle of Mildred Loraine Levy, Taken about 1890.  That all makes sense.  But not driving horses?  These guys look like they’re driving horses to me.

So I enlarged the photo so I could get a good look at them and saw this.



Nice looking men but are they Gustave and Abraham?  Grandma, what does “not driving horses” mean?

Here’s photos of Abe and Gustave from the late 1800s.  Are they the same people?

Abraham Gunzendorfer Ernest H. Price Photographer 208 Forest Avenue Pacific Grove

I don’t know the year this photo was taken but it doesn’t look to be the same man who is “not driving horses” in the photo above.

Gustave George Gunzendorfer Elite – Jones & Lotz Photographer 838 Market Street San Francisco, Cal.

Now this photograph gives me a little more to go on since I was able to find that the photographer operated on Market Street from 1878-1905.  So the time frame fits.  But is it the same guy who is “not driving horses” above?  Seems like a stretch to me.

So just what does “not driving horses” even mean?  Was there another photograph that Grandma was referencing and she wrote it on the back of the wrong photo?  I love it when she leaves me bread crumbs but sure wish she’d left a better trail this time.