Two girls with floral wreath ~ 1840s by John Plumbe, Jr. (1809-1857)
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Sixth-plate daguerreotype, with delicate hand-tinting and gilt detail, ‘Plumbe’ stamped on the brass mat, sealed, cased, 1840s.
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This is a most endearing image of two girls, who are probably sisters, holding hands. They have matching bracelets and matching pen necklackes (the long golden item hanging down in front of them with a knot at the neck). Seen from the side you can see how the sleeve caps are shaped and the fan bodice – very nice detail. And they have the most perfect ringlets.
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“This Plumbe daguerreotype comes originally from an auction of photographs owned by the late Abraham Stransky (1910-1995), a reclusive New Yorker known to an early generation of collectors and photography buffs in the 1950s and 1960s. A printer by trade, Stransky haunted thrift shops, antique stalls, and used book stores, amassing a remarkable collection of cased images, stereographs, and card photographs. A photographer himself, Stransky also left to his heirs hundreds of his own stereo views, miniature furniture carved by his own hand, and reams of his own verse. Selected with a superb eye, the Stransky collection was completely fresh to the market when it appeared in these rooms in 1995, sparking a revival of interest in 19th-century photography and the daguerreotype in particular.”
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Via: Sotheby’s
