Western or Forty-Niner
SOLD April 2011 |
Superb quarter plate daguerreotype of a man in frontier or western-style clothing, perhaps a California gold-rush era immigrant or gold miner, anonymous American circa 1850. Housed as found in a high-quality pushpin half case with embossed gilt design.
This gent has the look of one who has actually experienced the frontier and survived, not just read about it in books, newspapers, or the sales literature of transportation companies. Judging by this higher-grade, quarter-plate daguerreotype, housed in what was an expensive and decorative case, he has met success in the challenges faced and at this point must have been "pretty well fixed" -- at least for the moment.
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