Feb 19, 2009 - Sale 2170

Sale 2170 - Lot 1

Price Realized: $ 4,320
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
(CASED IMAGE)
Delicately hand-tinted sixth-plate daguerreotype of a cultured gentleman, possibly Nathaniel Currier, posing before the print "MacDonough's Victory on Lake Champlain and Defeat of the British Army at Plattsburg by Genl. Macomb, 1814," which was engraved by Benjamin Tanner (1777-1846), after a painting by H. Philip Reinagle (1749-1883) in a leather case. Circa 1850
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

A remarkable American image in which a gentleman poses alongside a large print relating to the War of 1812. At the very least, an occupational daguerreotype of a 19th-century print dealer, stamped Scovill Mfg.

Interestingly, the print on display is Benjamin Tanner''s etching (after H. Philip Reinagle''s painting) of the famous, and decisive, navel and land battle at Plattsburg, NY and on Lake Champlain, in September of 1814. The sitter may be the American entrepreneur Nathaniel Currier (1813 -1888), who went on to become a successful partner in the firm of Currier and Ives, the printmaking enterprise he operated with James Merritt Ives (1824-1895). Identification of Currier is suggested by his association with the print on the table since he used the very same battle scene in a commemorative print he published, in 1846, 'Navel Heroes of the Battle of Lake Champlain.' Two years later he published "MacDonough's Victory on Lake Champlain,' which was also based on Tanner''s print. Early portraits of Currier are not extant; the only known images are from a later period, between 1850 to early 1880s. Although it is difficult to definitively identify Currier as the subject of this remarkable daguerreotype, the evidence is noteworthy.