Oct 22, 2020 - Sale 2548

Sale 2548 - Lot 229

Price Realized: $ 16,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,500
(CIVIL WAR) ATTRIBUTED TO C. R. REES & CO. (active 1851-80)
Half-plate ambrotype of an unidentifed Confederate officer.
Delicately tinted and with gilt highlights; in a leather case, separated at hinge. 1861-64.

WITH--A Confederate States America Twenty Dollar bill, with the handwritten number 38392. Circa 1862.

Additional Details

Cased images by Rees included in the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs at the Library of Congress show a studio setting identical to this ambrotype.

According to the Gorgas Library at the University of Alabama, "Born to German immigrants in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Rees first established a photographic studio in Richmond, Virginia in 1851. After a brief attempt in the mid-1850s to open a gallery in New York City, Rees and his family returned to the area and established themselves as fixtures in Richmond and nearby Petersburg. After his studio burned in April 1865 along with the rest of Richmond, Rees reopened and continued working in the area until at least 1880."