Circa 1855.
Price: $4,500.00
Unbound. Sixth plate ambrotype. Image size approximately 3" x 3½". Matted with preserver in one half only of the original embossed leather case. Examined out of the case, which reveals nothing of substance about either the subject or the photographer. Our attribution of the date suggested by the style of the mat, the preserver, and the case. A modest smear on the bottom right not effecting the central figure, else the image is very good. A three-quarter length image of a rather severe looking African-American with tightly cropped hair, in a vest, a jacket with detailed and elaborately patterned buttons, and a long skirt or smock, and bearing a baton or cane topped with a finial underneath their left arm.
A curious and to our mind highly perplexing image. We have shown the image to several keen photographic observers and have received disparate opinions, some disagreeing about gender, others intrigued or speculating on the unusual outfit, and musing on the possible uses of the cane or baton. A couple have suggesting that the subject might have membership in a fraternal (or sororal) organization. An unidentified but uniquely American image, shrouded in mystery.
Item #604050
