Christie’s To Honor Rare Daguerreotypes in a New Auction
The year was 1839 when the French government announced the newly invented technology, photography, a gift to the world. The first photographs ever made were shot using a process called the daguerreotype, which stunned the world. Almost 200 years later, a new auction at Christie’s is now set to bring us 200 exceptional and rare daguerreotypes to the market. Here is a look at what one can expect from this sale. All images used with permission.Titled Maillet Daguerreotype Collection, this auction has some of the most significant works from photographers available in the market for the past 25 years. This includes daguerreotypes of the inventor of the telegraph, Samuel F. B. Morse; the man who captured the first self-portrait, Robert Cornelius; and others such as John Ruskin, Platt D. Babbitt, Henry Fitz Jr., Plumbe, Southworth and Hawes, Francis Grice, and more. Havana, CubaAttributed to Charles Deforest Fredricks (1823-1894)In an article by The New York Times, it was reported that Samuel F. B. Morse’s portrait can fetch as much as $60,000. While Morse is better known for the invention of the telegraph, he was also an early adopter of the daguerreotype process. For the uninitiated, the daguerreotype was a collaborative project between French inventors Joseph Nicephore Niepce and Louis Mande Jacques Daguerre. It was a painstaking process, where to capture an image, one has to coat a copper plate with silver, and then expose that to create a positive image. There were no negatives, just a box to encase the daguerreotype, which would get somewhat oxidized. This process became an instant hit around the world, despite the hours one had to put in to stand in front of the plate.Image by Southworth & Hawes.However, Morse, who learned the technique from Daguerre in 1839, was one of the first photographers to create the plates in America. In fact, he also pioneered the use of the process to capture portraits. The daguerreotype of Morse is one of the only two known photographs shot by the man. The other picture is now a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection. But it was not just portraits; Morse, who also opened a portrait studio in New York, also helped to advance the slow process, making it his own, too. In addition, the other noteworthy photograph is by Henry Fitz Jr., who captured the Washington Monument in Baltimore in 1841. There are also over two dozen plates, including portraits, views of the California gold rush, and European scenes, which were captured by Southworth & Hawes.Today, each of the photographs offers us a sliver of a glimpse into a life we have forgotten. Photography is the reason we are able to see how people or places looked in real life, rather than depending upon a painter’s interpretation of what that time was like. With these daguerreotypes, you see not only how far photography has come, but how far United States has managed to progress. The Maillet Daguerreotype Collection will be on display from June 21 to 26, with the online auction running from June 12 to 26. For more information, visit Christie’s webiste.
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