Another Daguerreotype For My Collection

I recently found a new another daguerreotype for my collection. I haven't added an image to the collection for a long time because so much of what I've seen has come with an inflated price.

What I look for is a pleasing or interesting sitter,  a case in good condition, and an image that hasn't oxidized too much. Plus, of course, a price that is fair. When I started collecting daguerreotypes, I could buy an image like the one above for as little as $7 — imagine! Today, a range $80-$120 is quite fair for an image that has been kept in as good condition. I'll spend more for gutta perchas, which you can read about here, or at my sidebar image of the camera.

The simplicity of the oval frame indicates that this daguerreotype predates the Civil War, and the attire suggests that this might date from the late 1840s to the mid 1850s. The young man appears at first glance to have a fob of some sort attached to his vest lapel, but in fact it's just an isolated spot of oxidation.

You can see in this close-up that there is very subtle tinting on the young man's face, and what an elaborate hairdo he concocted! Perhaps in later life he sported a comb-over (for which he would have had a lot of practice!).
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Strange Victorian Eyes!

Regular readers of this blog know that I collect the early photographs known as daguerreotypes. You can read all about my daguerreotypes in my sidebar or here.

When I buy daguerreotypes, I consider many things — the condition of the image, the condition of the case, the aesthetics of each, and how interesting the subject matter is. Sometimes I'll buy an image just for the case, and sometimes I'll buy an image that doesn't have a case at all.

Recently, I bought a daguerreotype that was pleasing on most counts — the felt was faded, but the very simple brass frame indicated that this was an early daguerreotype, probably from the 1840s. And the sitter was an agreeable looking gentleman with a marvelous plaid vest.

The image is in great shape, the pose is refined, and the face and hands have been tinted. Here's a close-up of the face . . .

The eyes were obviously tinted blue, but the color has either faded, or was always too subtle, and so the eyes appear much lighter than normal. That gives the face a rather eerie look, I think.

The eyes get more interesting as they're enlarged because the irises are square, rather than round. My thinking is that the retoucher didn't make a circular motion with his brush, but instead made two vertical strokes and one horizontal stroke, thereby boxing the irises. Can my imaginative readers think of another scenario for this other-worldly face?
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Happy New Year!

For a number of years, I've been collecting daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes. Along the way, I've also become infatuated with their gutta percha cases, also known as union cases. I'm starting the new year by bringing you the collection on three separate pages. You'll find them in the right-hand column under the camera header.

I hope you can set some time aside to visit the collection, and that viewing it brings you as much pleasure as collecting it has brought me. Happy New Year!