Taken at Home
SOLD September 2012 |
Sixth plate daguerreotype, probably by an anonymous American amateur circa 1845, in leather half case with original hand made paper-cardboard mat.
The strangely intense and non-commercial quality of this plate, unusual handmade mat, and the intimacy of sitter's pose seem to point towards an amateur or itinerant daguerreotypist operating in the sitter's home. Note also the strange cloth thrown over the sitter's chair and harsh unfiltered side-lighting. Tonality of the sitter is reddish-orange with excellent gradation.
The period mat appears to be made from thin cardboard with a patterned paper carefully pasted over it.
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