THREE DIFFERENT ?TYPES?! As many of you folks know I began collecting fine daguerreotypes in 1986. I have been selling dags as a full-time profession for 22 years. I never had the opportunity to purchase three images, an original sixth plate dag, a half plate ambrotype copy of those sitters AND a sixth plate tintype copy also done from that first plate. There is a peculiar twist to the story. Opposite Grandmother Barnum and her little granddaughter who held flowers when they were taken at Clarksfield OH in 1853 was a portion of a polished plate that was etched with that information and more. Plus there were two hand written notes and more information on the wooden backer of a wooden frame that has disappeared. (See the subsequent scans for those and the other two images). All three have been conserved. The two sixth plate leather cases have cloth hinges and the half plate leather case is apart. Here is that surprise happenstance. I own three more portraits with a similar presentation adhered to the case pads. I suspect the same person took each example. My price is for the trilogy of images.
The three dags listed below are NOT for sale and the memorial piece I mention was previously bought. The itinerant daguerreian?s first portrait I own was taken in Ridgeville Ohio on April 18 1853 showing a 55-year-old gent, Mr. L. Tomlinson. That tiny hamlet is about 30 miles northeast of Cincinnati. On July 22 1853 the same operator was working in Rockport Ohio. There he captured another sixth plate likeness of an 18-year-old gal, Miss A. A. Phinney. This location was 12 miles northeast of Lima. He continued traveling towards north towards Lake Erie in an unknown form conveyance to Clarksfield Ohio, where he executed the outstanding (for a man on the move) sixth plate of ?E. Barnum Aged 63 years and A. E. Patch Age 6 Years in 1853?. (This is the dag, along with the other two images I am offering for sale). With all the additional notations I would have hoped for the actual month and year. However, since this progression was basically northeasterly from the Cincinnati area in the direction of Cleveland in half of a parabolic arc I suspect that Grandmother and granddaughter were third in the progression of dags in my possession with similar portions of a dag plate that was inscribed with vital information. Ah . . . I bet you thought I was finished! I have a fourth sixth plate with this inscription on the silvered emblem “Mrs. E. Barnum Age 64 yrs. 1855?. According to a listing for Judd C. Potter in Craig?s Daguerreian Registry, he was an itinerant daguerreotypist until he established a studio in Elyria Ohio circa 1858. AND he was an expert in engraving daguerreotype plates. Some of you might recall the monumental sixth plate memorial piece I previously owned that was dedicated to William Jones a California gold miner. Potter engraved it and a smaller piece of plate that was adhered to the case pad on March 16th 1853. Mogadore in Portage County Ohio was the noted location. So . . . I have always wondered if Mr. Potter might have been the daguerreotypist responsible for these portraits.
