Lot 6

Lot 6

Fabulous hand-tinted quarter-plate German daguerreotype identified by a label on the back to Carl Dihm, Stuttgart. According to online sources, Dihm (1795-1892) was an early German pioneer in photography. He was also a professional confectioner. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could purchase exquisite chocolates after your portraits! This lovely daguerreotype captures a happy family posed with their two children. We suspect the boy is sitting on dad’s lap with the daughter artfully leaning on mom’s lap with her head happily resting on her arm. Both are in beautiful, tinted light powder blue outfits with a white bow on the girl’s. They each hold a small flower with some green and reddish-brown tinting. The plate had old seals still on the back and inside. We decided to open the image to clean the inside of the glass and we did a distilled water soak to remove some dust spots that had adhered to the plate. The tones and contrast are nice with some perimeter tarnish that has invaded the top of the parents’ head as seen. Obviously, this could be professionally removed but the blue tint makes this worth preserving in its original state. 

Opening bid $350