Antique Portrait Photography Styles
You must be a subscriber, and be logged in to view price and dealer details.
Subscribe Now to view actual auction price for this item
When you subscribe, you have the option of setting the currency in which to display prices to $Au, $US, $NZ or Stg.
- Daguerreotype - The first photographic image was achieved in 1814 by Frenchman Joseph Niepce, with first photographic with the camera obscura, an optical device that projects an image onto a screen. However, the image required eight hours of light exposure and later faded.
Joseph Niepce continued working on improving his invention Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, an artist. Niepce died in 1833, but Daguerre carried on, and at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris on August 19, 1839 announced he had discovered a new method of photography, the daguerreotype which he named after himself. The daguerreotype process reduced the exposure time from 8 hours to 3 - 15 minutes.
In major cities, professional photographers of the time, known as daguerreotypists, invited celebrities and political figures to their studios, hoping that by displaying a selection of portraits in their windows, the public would be encouraged to be photographed.
However the popularity of the daguerreotype was short-lived, and its use declined in the late 1850s when the ambrotype, a faster and less expensive photographic process, became available. However the ambrotype still required the services of a professional photographer and it was not until the invention of Kodak's Box Brownie in 1900 that the public were able to shoot their own photographs.
Due to the short time (20 years) that the daguerreotype was popular, and the fact that the image was produced directly onto the plate, meaning there were no negatives, original daguerreotypes are scarce. Most daguerreotypes are portraits, with landscapes and street scenes being less less common.
This item has been included into following indexes:
Visually similar items
Two glass encased etchings of a man and a horseback battle scene together with another glass encased etching of a man and woman. 24 x 9 cm. 24 x 9 cm. 40 x 23 cm.
Two Chinese panels, the yellow rosewood frames have a finely carved blackwood border, 19th, 20th century, inlaid with jade & turquoise cabochons, the immortals including the patron of musicians sitting high in a tree, inlaid with semi precious stones [2],
Two Chinese panels, the yellow rosewood frames have a finely carved blackwood border, 19th, 20th century, inlaid with jade & turquoise cabochons, the immortals including the patron of musicians sitting high in a tree, inlaid with semi precious stones [2].
Stunning pair of Wedgwood black basalt plaques, of rectangular form, depicting a scene of a figures in sabre leg chair surrounded by angels, cupids, musicians and Diana, within a gilt frame, 14 cm x 19 cm (plaque size), (2)