Featured Twin sisters decked out in jewelry, daguerreotype.

Recently acquired this dag of these two twin sisters decked out in jewelry. The sister on the left seems a bit more photogenic. You can their pocket watches peeking out as well. All around a nice daguerreotype showcasing plenty of bling.

 

Love the pocket watches!!

 

Well, they aren't identical twins.

 

VERY unusual cladding. with those military-style belts and watches perhaps nurses from the civil war ?
my guess is of Italian origin.

 

Interestingly in the sellers photos I noticed an inscription behind the image. Hopefully and ID of sorts saying who they are!

 

Great photo. Very helpful in understanding how these long, lanyard type necklaces/chains with a slide were used. This came up in another thread about a watch pin, where think we had a photo of one of these chains being used to tether a ladies watch that was being worn hung from a brooch. I have one I use to hold the loupe I use when I go to jewellery shows, another thing that will be cancelled I fear.

 

That would be interesting. Of course you'll let us know if there's an inscription once you receive it, won't you?

 

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/great-grandmothers-necklace-question.34912/

 

And lovely lace collars!

 

I would guess that these outfits would be impractical for nursing work. Here's an interesting article on trying to ID any sort of standard American Civil War nurses' uniform. http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-nurse-in-uniform-what-war.html From the hairstyles my guess would be 1850s.

 

Love those slide necklaces

 

Well, disaster struck in the most unlikely of ways. I received the image and it smelled like cigar/cigarette smoke horribly. Like freshly smoked cigars. Anyhow, I took the image out and looked at the inscription on the inside. It was written in pencil and badly faded. I could not make out any names for the life of me. With this said I had to leave the case outside for a little to air it out. It was a nice day sunny and all. However, I took a nap and apparently it rained badly. The case was drenched in water but the inscription on the inside remained alright. It was not supposed to rain and it still smells like smoke. Luckily the image was safely taken out beforehand and NOT left outside. I am drying the case off and it looked fine except for the water stained paper.....

I feel horrible about this incident and can't believe it happened...

 

Just an update but this thing smells so strongly that my air cleaner turned red when it was near it......

Amazingly the bulk of the inscription was untouched somehow. There was some wording on the bottom that got wet but the pencil marks are still there. You can click on the images to enlarge them as well. It looks to me that there are two names because I see the word AND. Doesn't look like they were sisters at all because the the two last names are different lengths....

 

The writing along the bottom appears to be a date. April 29, 1881 or something like that. I've tried running this through retroreveal, but it doesn't clear things up a lot in this case.

 

another from retroreveal

 

Funny how the water stained portion is more readable than the portion that stayed dry lol. Thanks for that! It most definitely is a date from what I can see in person and it looks like April 22, 1858!

One of the girl's names looks like Blair maybe?

 

Last name in the first name looks like Houghton to me.
L----- P Houghton

 

I'll get a loupe out later and see if I can't get some better read on it. Would it be better if I scanned the inscription instead of taking a picture with my phone?

Maybe try running this picture through? I got a bit more of the first name?

 

That date is spot-on for the hair and dress styles. Here's an 1858 fashion plate for comparison. I hope you can decipher the names!