Featured Old, but how old?

Batster-(IMHO)The main things You'd want to discover re this piece-
1.Is the subject famous (& eyes closed-is it an early 'post mortem') ?
2. Original,copy,chemistry of image (def help to date) ?
3. Was this (we think) quite early image made by a famous 1st Generation photographer-Louis Daguerre,Fox Talbot,Claudet & Williams,etc. ?
The answers affect value.Members will think of other questions (family trees,studio location,etc)

 

Thank you @bosko69 , that's a great summary and all important questions. I just have a 'feeling' about this image, it intrigues me and looks much earlier than my many other CDVs. But that's as far as my knowledge takes me. I'm very grateful for this forum!

 

Graphics Atlas is an excellent site for differentiating photographic technologies, but you do have to spend some time with it in order to tell. They go into a great deal of detail regarding the surface, even under magnification. I notice that both salt paper prints and albumen prints can have a surface sheen, but albumen is more glossy.

I recall from your previous posts that you have purchased old photos before. So you could also compare the surface of this one to those.

Others have already pointed out that his breeches are of an older type. So I think the options are, is this truly a print older than the 1860s, or is it a print made from an older image? Whichever it is, I think it's still old, not a very modern image. (Some current photographers still use the older methods.)

Main link to Graphics Atlas http://www.graphicsatlas.org/
You can go to the Identification tab to pick different methods to compare.

Overview page for Salted Paper:
http://www.graphicsatlas.org/identification/?process_id=269#overview

Overview page for Albumen:
http://www.graphicsatlas.org/identification/?process_id=143

You can go to the Surface View tabs for those to see more detail and advice on how to tell from looking closely at the surface of the print.

If that site doesn't fully satisfy you, you might see if you can find an expert archivist or collector or photo historian near you, to show them in person. If I remember correctly, you live somewhere in the U.K., don't you?

 

Thanks @Figtree3 , I do appreciate your help. I think you’ve mentioned graphics atlas to me before and I will definitely bookmark it this time! Yes, I’m in the UK - contacting an expert appeals to me because although I’ve been collecting photographs for years now, I don’t have the confidence to rely solely on my own judgement. But it’s good to know that the image is interesting enough to move forward with it, and I’ll feed back anything I find out.

Ok, I’m off to explore (and bookmark) the links you’ve provided. Thanks again!

 

I’ve followed the search function on Graphics Atlas to the best of my ability and it’s coming out as salt print / calotype. But I’m not at all sure my responses are accurate so I really need someone with expertise to look at it. Watch this space!

 

Bat-Ant chance you can get to the V&A (excellent photography collection) or the BM ?
George Eastman House in the States- 'The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as George Eastman House and the International Museum of Photography and Film, is the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in Rochester, New York.'

 

I’m going to send an email or three @bosko69, and see what the response is - I’d be more than happy to make a trip if the response was good. I don’t want to get my hopes up of course, but I’m extremely curious and eager to learn more!

 

Good Luck Bat !

 

I love old photos but get so frustrated when I can't solve the mystery on who is in them!!

 

I found an old costume (brass and shell) locket the other day and thought about it, but at $20 it was kind of spendy. Inside someone glued pictures of what I think were her parents or grandparents, probably circa 1910. I think the guy was in a really old uniform...only someone had ripped the photo out of the glue and badly damaged it. Darnitt darnitt darnitt. The photos were the best part!

 

In regards to 'do it your-selfers' trying to improve antiques...