Dating A Daguerreotype Mat

Dating very early american daguerreotypes a comprehensive explanation of the dating of daguerreotypes illustrated with many scanned images.

Dating a daguerreotype mat. The parts include the photo itself a brass mat a pane of glass a preserver also. So if this is part of your value puzzle you can be sure it was produced between and about the ambrotype s life span was very short wide spread. Dating american daguerreotypes 1839 1842 by dennis a. Early mage on a silver coated copper plate.

Dating ambrotype photographs is fairly easy for genealogists. The glass plates do not bear dating marks as with the daguerreotype plates. Early ambrotypes had a second plate of glass sealed to the image. This daguerreotype s case has a plain mat without engraving and lacks a preserver indicating a date within the first seven years of the art.

The ambrotype was only in popular production for about ten years. Berg self published is an excellent resource to help you date daguerreotype mats and cases. In my photo both men are wearing loose fitting jackets with wide lapels. The book nineteenth century photographic cases and wall frames by paul k.

Since i m no fashionista i turned to websites such as family chronicle which also has published two books on dating photos for help in matching styles with a particular era consulting experts such as maureen taylor whose website includes a blog and provides teleseminars are also a good resource. The rarest and most valuable for sports subjects. Even after closely inspecting ten thousand naked daguerreotype plates sometimes i still don t know conclusively when an american portrait was made or at what time a daguerreian ventured.