tuesday-johnson:

ca. 1850’s, [daguerreotype portrait of a casually posed gentleman in a white suit], William and Frederick Langenheim

via the Daguerreian Society, Jack Naylor Collection

Dandy after my own heart.

Interior view of the New York Crystal Palace for the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, taken on the first of December, 1853.

Lithograph by Nagel & Weingaertner, New York.

LOC.

Probably up there with my favorite lithographs of the mid-nineteenth century. I, uh, really really really really like this.

(Source: loc.gov)

My friend Anna’s parasol, which is a ca 1867-1875 frame with a black silk taffeta cover, brass stem, metal ribs with brass rib tips, and a carved mahogany handle and finial. The remnants of an ivory silk tassel cord were found beneath the finial during removal of the cover.

I put an 18-inch ruler next to it for scale. Since this photo was taken, the parasol has entered the beginning stages of its restoration - the frame has been stripped of the cover after its initial measurements taken for pattern-drafting, and the finial removed for ease of recovering. The mock-up patterns (there are two initial mock-ups I want to do, one of them absolutely crazy, but y’all will see what I mean.) have been drafted and possiblya mock-up will be marked and cut tonight. The planned new cover will be more elaborate than the original - which is a first for me, but it will not leave the confines of what is seen in the period in which it is made and on examples that would be considered like this frame (carved wooden handle and finial, brass stem, etc.)

All this at the beginning of a job hunt, which is all rather overwhelming. (A job hunt! That’s part of that good news I was talking about, if I didn’t mention it earlier.)

Charles Oakford & Sons Model Hat Store, 826 & 828 Chestnut Street, Continental Hotel. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Lithograph by Ibbotson & Queen, ca 1870

(Source: lcpdams.librarycompany.org)

tuesday-johnson:

ca. 1850’s, [portrait of a gentleman wearing an Odd Fellows apron]

via the Daguerreian Society, Grant Dinsmore Collection

Rather neat image, I think.

Parasol, Cornelius St. John, ca 1867

The patent date on the turned oak handle is December 24th, 1867. A couple internet inquiries matched this date to a patent issued to a Cornelius St. John of Charlestown, Massachusetts.

Cornelius St. John has a number of patents on file. Not including the patent that he was issued for the design of this parasol, he was issued a patent for a lamp (Pat. No. 72242, Nov. 19th, 1867), a lamp burner (Pat. No. 75483, March 10th, 1868), and most unusually a device for self-teaching of the Harmonica (Pat No. 176124, 1876). By 1876, St. John had moved from Charlestown and had settled in Boston.

St. John appears to have been involved in some part with the design and sale of oil lamps during the late 1860s, as both patents for the lamp and lamp burner of 1867 and 1868 respectively indicate, as does his patent for the Improvement in Parasols (Pat. No. 72695) which shows that the design of the folded canopy of the parasol originated from the paper oil lamp shades.

As the patent shows, the diminutive sunshade is opened by a metal ring which slides up and spreads the pleated canopy. This same ring holds the canopy closed when not in use. The canopy is a polished cotton material. I was surprised to find that the canopy was lined also with polished cotton. The outside is a brown and steel-blue, but looking in between the tight pleats toward the top of the canopy indicates that these stripes were originally azuline blue, of the extremely vivid, aniline dye variety.

Green fringed ‘marquis’ parasol ca 1843-50

Baleen ribs, silk taffeta cover and silk fringe, turned mahogany folding handle and ivory terminals (lyre-shaped finger ring at finial long-lost).

I realized, looking through my photo archives that I had a photo of this parasol after I repaired the handle.

Sixth-plate daguerreotype of a woman, by Chauncey Barnes, ca 1851. Anonymous collection, published in The American Daguerreotype, Rinehart & Rinehart (1981).

A favorite image from a favorite book.

blaaargh:

Attributed to Pottier and Stymus Manufacturing Company, Side Chair, 1875

YES. I love Pottier and Stymus.

tuesday-johnson:

ca. 1850’s, [hand-tinted daguerreotype portrait of an artist with his palette and brushes]

via Christie’s

Gotta love the smoking cap this guy is wearing!