Featured My 1st daguerreotype - 1850's?

Hello, bought my 1st daguerreotype. I believe it might be from around the 1850's, but I'm not sure. I'm basing that on the info on phototree. It also assumes that the case and mat, etc. are original. The seller said it has old paper seals. Was wondering if anyone else wants to venture a guess on the age of this photo? I'm still a bit of a newbie to dags Thank you.

 

It's certainly early Victorian. Not an expert but... The low shoulder with close fit sleeve and low pointed waist are typical of the 1840s. In the 1850s, the "pagoda" or "bell" sleeve became popular. Let's see what others think.

Debora

 

@Figtree3 ??

 

It's early here and I am still groggy. I like Debora's perception, but after I wake up a little I will look at some of my books and come back to update.

Nice image, by the way!

 

Okay, I have checked a few books so far. I can't tell exactly which decade because it appears this is from the very late 1840s or the very early 1850s. The way the woman's dress appears to be open across the front was a "trendy" style during that time. The bottoms of her sleeves do open out, not tight all the way down. But as Debora noted, the tops of her sleeves are close fitting. So it seems to be a transitional style. Her hairstyle covers her ears in a way that seems to fit late 1840s or early 1850s. Later in the 1850s women often wore their hair puffed out more over the ears than the woman in this photo does. The man's tie and collar are more suggestive of 1840s but could also be early 1850s.

I have a book that gives possible date ranges for cases, mats, and preservers. I like this book a lot because the author has based these as much as possible on images that have dates written on them, and other sources where the date is known. Although I haven't seen the case cover, I did find the mat and preserver styles in the book. He calls that style of mat, with that shaped opening, a "Cusped" mat. He dates it from 1850-1854. The preserver design he has dated 1850-1856. Remember, these are carefully studied but he of course has not seen every photo that exists. So it's possible to be slightly different in reality.

@Jerry Coker , if you want I can look in a couple of books for the case style, to see if any more info comes to light. Of course any time in the last 170 years somebody could have swapped the case. But so far everything is falling together into the same date range. So if you would add some photos of the outside of the case, I will get to it.

 

Thanks so much for the replies so far. I've learned a lot from this forum and really appreciate the sharing of knowledge. Below is the photo of the case, which I forgot to include yesterday. As you can see, it has a good bit of wear. I spent about 6 months looking at dags on ebay before finally pulling the trigger in this one. In addition to being a pretty clear image, it has 3 subjects that I thought might make it a little easier to study (clothes, etc.). I still need to go back to phototree to look at some more dag case studies

 

Well, this is interesting -- The book I'm consulting for cases, titled _Fixed in Time_ by Sean Nolan, shows this case on page 204. He gives the cases titles to differentiate them. Most designs did not have official titles. This case is #642 titled "Ace of Diamonds." The date range is slightly later than I thought the image would be. He gives 1853-1856 as a range for cases of this design that he has seen with dates.

I did not find the case in the other book I have.

Also, the silk-covered pad inside the case tends to indicate a case of an earlier date, I think. Later ones tended to have a velvet covered pad. I would have to check on that to make sure.

 

Thanks figtree, I don't know how common removing/replacing dag photos/cases is, but since I started looking at dags on ebay about 6 months ago, I've begun to think that dags & ambros both may suffer from people/sellers/resellers putting these old photos in different cases/mats, unless maybe there is provenance and/or family documentation. This dag has no provenance, so perhaps it isn't the original case. But again, I'm pretty new to 19th photography. So take what I say with a grain of salt I am enjoying learning! Thank you for your time/effort. Much appreciated!

 

@Jerry Coker , if you use Facebook, there are two groups I can recommend:

The Daguerreian Society -- a more serious group of very knowledgeable collectors, curators, and researchers. Some are dealers also, but the group is not for selling. They prefer posts to be for images from the 1860s and earlier. The society is also a membership association but you don't have to pay for a membership to be in the group. For the past year they have also had online presentations through their website almost every Saturday. Each hour-long presentation costs $25 and past presentations can also be viewed, for $25 each. Both the Facebook group and the online presentations are good for learning. I also became a member of the society 6-7 years ago. They have some nice publications for members.

The other Facebook group is Victorian Images. This group is for photos from the Victorian era, 1839-1901. It has a lot of members from all levels of knowledge. There are a lot of knowledgeable collectors and also a lot of people who are learning. There are fewer serious discussions there, and lots of people just showing photos they bought.

Well, you seem interested in learning so I thought I would mention these. There are also other Facebook groups for antique photo collectors but most are more specialized (only for tintypes, for example).

 

Thank you figtree, I joined Victorian Images last night & will checkout The Daguerreian Society. Appreciate the tips!