American Historical Ephemera & Photography, Featuring Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana & Historical Documents

Ninth plate daguerreotype portrait of a dashing gentleman looking off to one side. (Clouding and other deterioration to plate, some oxidation to mat.) Image contained in a Thomas Wharton pan, stamped with Wharton's seal and the Royal British coat of arms on verso. All housed in a fully separated leatherette flip-top case (fully split at hinge, right interior edge movable, surface wear). 

Because of the Wharton pan, we believe this image to have originated in one of Richard Beard's studios, as he was the patent holder for the daguerreotype in the “territory of England, Wales and Berwick-upon-Tweed.” The Wharton pan was an element exclusive to Beard, and was used by his studios up until 1844. Beard was also known to use the Wolcott camera to produce ninth plate images with shorter exposure time, as a mirror was used rather than a lens. It is likely this image was made using such a camera, though this cannot be confirmed.