An Old Photograph
Cowanʼs Auction House Catalog
MOMA - San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The Wirst step in dating an old photograph is to identify the type of photograph you own. Each photographic format occupied a particular time period in history.
Daguerrotype 1839 to 1865
Ambrotype 1855 to 1865
Named after its French inventor Louis Daguerre. Most popular from early 1840s to 1860s. Image consists of silver amalgam (highlights) and pure silver (shadows) on a silver-coated copper plate; mirror-like surface; usually encased (in America). Each daguerreotype was a one-of-a-kind image. Daguerreotypes have to be held at a certain angle to be viewed due to the mirror-like reflective surface.
Most popular in late 1850s. Silver image in a collodion binder on an opaque glass support. Exposed in the camera the back of the plate was blackened resulting in a positive appearing image. Like the daguerreotype, ambrotypes were usually placed in protective cases. This Ambrotype
This Daguerrotype
Untitled ca. 1860 Photographer Unknown
J.P. Ball Quarter Plate Daguerrotype Of Mulattoes (See Behind The Camera Article)
This is a portrait of an African-American woman with two white children.
This portrait of three young men dressed in suits; light hand-tinting to shirts and piping on jacket of the youngest; brass mat stamped, was auctioned by Cowan’s of History Detective fame. Price Realized: $4,406.25
2 1/2 in. x 3 1/2 in. (6.35 cm x 8.89 cm) Promised gift of Paul Sack to the Sack Photographic Trust.