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Amazing Half Plate Portrait of Helen Mathews

$12,500.00

In stock

SKU: D00-83 Category:

“HELEN MATHEWS” . . . But alas, the slip of paper that identified the little pixie has disappeared between the time I originally purchased the magnificent half plate produced in the studio of Jeremiah Gurney at 189 Broadway in New York City and when I bought back the child’s masterwork. The archivally conserved portrait accurately portrayed the level of sophistication that the Gurney operators were able to achieve circa 1851. While you might immediately love Miss Mathews looking at my reproduction, I can assure the next collector that opening her professionally repaired case will cause a heightened reaction. The child remained alive between the leather covers! The brilliantly tinted holographic mirror remains nearly pristine today. Helen is surrounded by deep, dark and colorful patina. She will be eager to travel to her future home and make acquaintances with “new friends”! I keep looking at my best effort to corral these pixels and laugh. As I have lamented many times previously, attempting to accurately reproduce the finest daguerreotypes is impossible. For those of you who might have visited my table in New York for Helen’s debut, you know what I mean. This then, was the apex of daguerreotypy. The likeness is a masterpiece!

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