Antique Daguerreotype Photograph
Set in Embossed Leather and Velvet Frame
Ca 1850s-1860s
Photo Measures 2 3/4" x 3 1/4"
Edge of Frame Has Been Repaired With Upholstery Tape
Daguerreotypes were a very early form of photography, a photographer would use a camera to expose light on a silver-plated plate of copper, then develop the image using a mercury vapor. Widely used in the 1840s and 1850s, it was soon replaced by the ambrotype. Because the silver takes on a mirror-like appearance, the subject can be viewed as either a positive or negative image depending on the angle viewed.