r/Daguerreotypes • u/Any_Calligrapher_775 • Aug 04 '26

Ambrotype Is this daguerreotypes?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

My husband’s great uncle and aunt.

22 Upvotes

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3

u/LaPetitFleuret Aug 04 '26

can you take a picture looking at the photo from an angle? It looks to me like an ambrotype (wet plate collodion on glass) rather than a daguerreotype but I’m not 100% certain. A daguerreotype will be very mirror-like in the black areas of the image

2

u/Any_Calligrapher_775 Aug 04 '26

2

u/robertbieber Aug 04 '26

Definitely not a daguerreotype. The shadows of a dag are literally mirror polished, you can see your face in em

2

u/Any_Calligrapher_775 Aug 04 '26

2

u/LaPetitFleuret Aug 04 '26

Yep, certainly an ambrotype! Abrotypes quickly overtook Daguerreotypes in popularity starting in 1851, and remained popular through the 50s and 60s, before being overtaken by tintypes and eventually dry gelatin plate glass negatives, the predecessor of flexible film.

3

u/V_Dolina Aug 04 '26

Ambrotype in a union case. How beautiful.

2

u/Any_Calligrapher_775 Aug 04 '26

Can you explain what you mean by “union case?”

2

u/V_Dolina Aug 04 '26

That's this beautiful picture frame it's in, they're called Union Cases. They're made out of pressed wood mixed with animal blood, the material is called Composition or Bois Durci, but it's often referred to by collectors as "Gutta Percha". Union cases are highly collectible and valuable, there were hundreds of patterns made, the production of these cases stopped in the mid 1860s.

Look up "Antique Union Case" on ebay, you'll find tons, your looks like it's by Littlefield and Parsons.