1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- Restoration COMPLETE! - 6 March

[COUNTRY GIRL]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- UPDATED- 4 March

Way to go Don! It really deserved the Banner, and it got it!

 

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[The Seeker]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- UPDATED- 4 March

Now if thats not bringing History back to life.......I don't know what is. Like I said earlier

Excellent Find!

 

[pgill]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- UPDATED- 4 March

Wow, exciting topic and photo..... was this a civil war time gent? I presume dressed like that, he was not a poor or ordinary gent? I will follow this topic very closely..... Great work, keep it up.

God bless
Peter

 

[N.J.THer]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- UPDATED- 4 March

Don,
All I can say is WOW...

I read your original post and thought it was amazing then just came back to read about your conservation efforts and I'm extremely impressed. The frame looks great and the photo is coming along nicely. Can wait to see how the electrolysis comes out. One thing I did miss is what happened to the glass. Did it just not clean up enough for you or did it break? just curious.

Thank you for the great post and looking forward to your next update.

NJ

 

[cavers5]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- UPDATED- 4 March

Honestly, I've never seen better conservators anywhere than some of the folks on Tnet!

Great job and kudos for having the guts to do it and taking the time to share!

Cavers5

 

[Don in SJ]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- UPDATED- 4 March

Don,
All I can say is WOW...

I read your original post and thought it was amazing then just came back to read about your conservation efforts and I'm extremely impressed. The frame looks great and the photo is coming along nicely. Can wait to see how the electrolysis comes out. One thing I did miss is what happened to the glass. Did it just not clean up enough for you or did it break? just curious.

Thank you for the great post and looking forward to your next update.

NJ

Even on Daguerreotypes that have never been buried in the ground for 150 years or so get the glass replaced by conservators as a somewhat common practice from what I have read in my research. The glass gets etched and also old glass evidently contained impurities that modern glass does not have and that also contributed to the degrading of the daguerreotypes.

But my piece of glass was really foggy, and it was embedded in the glass, I tried several procedures to clear it up and it just was not going to happen, so I will save the glass as it is an original and piece of the frame, but for visual sake, the glass had to be replaced.

Attached is a photo of the glass after I tried several cleaning methods and it would not clear up.

Don

 

[Mental Granny]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- UPDATED- 4 March

CONGRATS!

 

[titan]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- UPDATED- 4 March

i have enjoyed watching this post, and am looking foward to the results and history of it.congrats, and great job. banner for sure!!

 

[ModernMiner]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- UPDATED- 4 March

Congrats Don on a well deserved banner find.
Very neat.
-MM-

 

[Admiral de Salee]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- UPDATED- 4 March

I applaud your efforts. Your find and the restoration of it are both great, and the banner is well-deserved!

1800's photos are a bit spooky, but I like to think that the fellow in the picture is somewhere being happy about what you've done.

 

[Don in SJ]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- UPDATED- 6 March

I did the Electrolysis today and it went fairly well, although I did over do it a bit and actually it started to look worst. Overall I am very happy with the results, I never thought with all that corrosion that just about any restoration would have been possible but a lot of reading, and a gut feeling about trying the way the Princeton website roughly showed did pay off.

Time to concentrate of Spring things around the house and finding some more old coppers.

Attached photos are of the Electrolysis setup, and what the photo looked like when done and the sequence of before and after photos.

I will always have it in the back of my head to hope to find out who the young man is, and maybe if I get in contact with the appropriate historical societies in the area (two county area) maybe, just maybe could find out who the young man was.

After much research and one or two collectors telling me, the age of this Daguerreotype is between 1855-1860, based on the Mat plate design.

It has been fun doing this, and a learning experience, I love cleaning and preserving the old coppers and wish to get into that in a more serious way, but one thing I learned in the research for how to clean the Daguerreotype is that Conservators in general are very tight lipped about their procedures, whether it be coins, photos or other artifacts.

Thanks for all the comments and I think a lot of us learned a little history on early photographs and sure is cool seeing how people dressed back before the Civil War.

To see some beautiful Daguerreotypes on the web, go to http://www.finedags.com/index.shtm (LOL there is even a cheesecake photo on this site, of course it is "art")

Don

 

[Ken from Atlanta]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- UPDATED- 6 March

That's amazing.....congrats to you on both an awesome find, and an incredible job of cleaning and preservation! Best of luck tracking the person down.

 

[N.J.THer]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- Restortation COMPLETE! - 6 March

Don,
Congratulations on the find, the conservation and the banner. I now know a new Daguerreotype cleaning expert that may advise a fellow T-Neter if the need ever arises for slightly less then the 500-1000 dollar price tag of other experts. LOL

Nice job.

NJ

 

[Montana Jim]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- Restortation COMPLETE! - 6 March

Don...

YOU
ARE
THE
MAN
​

 

[Colonial Zoyboy]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- Restortation COMPLETE! - 6 March

You frickin' rock, Don! Not only are you great at digging coppas, you are also a great conservator.

You are due for another one of those green circles.

Kyle

 

[mamabear]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- Restortation COMPLETE! - 6 March

amazing! thanx for sharing your find, & the whole process. It was a fun ride.

 

[Colonial Zoyboy]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- Restortation COMPLETE! - 6 March

Since I didn't like my 666 post count, I decided to post another.

I love you, Don!

Kyle

 

[Mona Lisa]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- Restortation COMPLETE! - 6 March

Don, You're a brave man hooking that up to electrolosis.....but YOU DID IT!!

This is not banner material......This definately belongs in "The Best of TreasureNet". No doubt about it.

Fantastic thread!!

 

[Montana Jim]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- Restortation COMPLETE! - 6 March

Lisa is right! (As always... )

Don... 21 members and 30 visitors are looking at this right now

 

[BuckleBoy]

Re: 1840-1860 era Antique Photo Portrait- Restortation COMPLETE! - 6 March

Bravo, Don! You also got the thumbs up from my friend who has been watching your post!

Now how's about a photo of the Daguerrotype back in its frame and matte with that new glass over it?