Clench and Clench
SOLD March 2013 |
Cabinet-card format albumen print showing the photographer Frank B. Clench with camera, photographing himself in double-exposure, circa 1890. Card imprinted front "Clench / Fairport, N.Y."
Clench ran a photographic studio in Lockport NY for some 30 years before moving to Fairport in 1889. In 1882 he had taken out patents relating to what he called "plaque" photographs with an embossed surface, which were heavily touted in the Philadelphia Photographer of 1883, being recommended to "Photographers desiring a novelty to raise prices on, and something very attractive to the public".
In 1896 his proposal for a photographic retouching tool was praised in Wilson's Photographic Magazine (p. 191).
Having a mind whose capabilities were clearly not limited to his own field of endeavor, in 1888 Clench was issued US Patent 387622 for an "Improved Cuspidor" (spittoon).
Image overall in excellent condition, with some foxing at top and bottom edge of image.
