Getting back to cases… For the daguerreotypes first ten years, leather cases similar to the ones previously used for miniature painted portraits were used. There were minor changes in construction, but basically all leather-over-wood cases were the same. Then, around 1850, some historic force made people want … more. There was an explosion of different case types to accompany the similar cambrian explosion of different mat shapes. Why was 1850-1856 the great period of new case types ? These include: Cases made to look like little books (row 1, left to right) , with covers of leather, mother-of-pearl inlay, or silver wire in paper-mache. Row 2 has a velvet-covered case, octagonal velvet cases, velvet case with flaps. There is a very rare cloth covered case with a painting under a glass window at the start of row 3. Following that, the Eickmeyer case of 1855 and Halvorson metal case from 1856 are the trailing edge of this wave of case innovation. Two innovative cases, shown on the bottom row, originating in this same period remained in production long-term. The plain pushbutton Boston case was introduced around 1852. It remained in use until 1861. The Union case, introduced in 1853, was just one of many of these new-fangled case. The success of the union case would eclipse all of the other new case styles, and, I suspect, lead them to their quick extinction. These dates are estimates, in some cases dated only by a single dated example in addition to association with short-lived & distinctive mat styles. I hope to have more accurate and detailed dates later; For that I need to collect some more data. The oval velvet case, introduced in the late 1850s (not shown in photo) I have already discussed.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 18:24:53 +0000