Featured Twin sisters decked out in jewelry, daguerreotype.

They could still be sisters, but with their married names, or perhaps cousins.

 

The last photo you posted didn't result in a huge improvement. Here is a retroreveal off that.

Looks kind of like
Mrs. -- P. Houghton
Miss Blythe
But that is 90% guessing.

 

Unfortunately the case didn't survive. The wood dried warped and when I tried to reinsert the photo the wood started popping. I feel sick about this and I cant believe it happened still. The case was under cover but I guess the wind pushed the rain to it. Kind of unbelievable to think that the case has been with the photo for this long and I ruined the it due to it stinking the entire house up...

Currently am looking for a new case for it, preferably one that isnt covered in smoke this time.

 

I'm still shocked that it hadn't rained for weeks and then just all of a sudden rained for less than 30 mins sometime after I put it outside to air it out without me even knowing.... crazy how that works. The ground wasnt even really wet when I retrieved it.

I know there are better ways to get rid of smokey smell but there were literally ash remnants in the shipping package that's how bad it was.

 

Even though the inscription itself didn't get wet it is just unreadable. I utilized every tool I had at my disposal to decipher the first names and it is just too far gone. They didn't really pencil hard enough and there aren't any imprints to trace. Bummer but oh well, I obviously still plan on restoring the image as soon as I can get some glass, replace the case. I will also keep the old case for the inscription. Glad I could extract a date from it. I also reached out to a daguerreotype restorer to inquire about getting the old case fixed but it probably is not possible.

 

I recently started to collect pocket watch chains. I thought those slides were made later in the late 1800's. Since I am a newbie collector, I had no idea those type of slides were made in the 1860's. It is amazing to see these in old photos and helps beginners like me date some of my pieces.

 

Working on getting glass cut, afterwards I'll have much better pictures to share of this image! The back of the image shows that someone has messed with it in the past, actually more recently it would seem because theres tape ripped off of it and its newer.... not sure what happened

 

The writing might not be a total loss. Infrared photography can be helpful in enhancing things such as faint writing. It involves a special filter to block out visible light, allowing the camera to record only the IR image. It might provide better results than just photoshop manipulation. I have done it back in the days of real cameras and film, and with a little googling I see there are filters for smart phone cameras. But you might be able to find a photographer in your area who could actually do it.

 

This is just a random idea that may or may not be helpful. I wonder if a UV light would make the writing more readable. There are relatively cheap dual frequency UV lights used by stamp collectors. There are also single frequency UV lights for seeing pet stains. Just to see if it might work, I did a little test with a cheap one of these stamp collector UV lights I have. These are photos I just took of some faded writing, although this is on vellum, not paper.
Lit by camera flash

Lit by natural outdoor light

Lit by 380nm UV

Lit by 254nm UV

 

This is an example of what IR photography can do. IR light penetrates a surface slightly farther than visible light (or UV), so it can expose materials not visible on the surface.


UV relies on different reflective properties of material on the surface. It would be worth trying both and, as @smallaxe points out, UV lights are readily available.