Description
Extremely rare photographic process AND subject matter. Circa 1850s glass ambrotype stereoview of a still life, flower funeral arrangement. A Salesman sample for a funeral home promoting floral funeral arrangements. Professionally mounted in contemporary archival boards for display and protection. This listing is for one of four different views/arrangements that were acquired together giving credence to the classification as salesman samples.
Image: 3 x 4 inches
Mat: 14 x 11 inches
The left image has a vertical crack in the glass.
The Ambrotype was first developed in 1851. They were made on a glass plate coated with a wet, light sensitive substance, which when developed and dried, produced a negative image. The negative then had to be mounted against a dark background or coated with a dark varnish to give the illusion of a positive.
Stereoviews consist of two images created with a stereo camera, a type of camera with two or more lenses. This allows the camera to simulate human binocular vision, and therefore gives it the ability to capture three-dimensional images, a process known as stereo photography. The images are side by side, either on glass or paper pasted onto a sturdy card, stereoviews were meant to be observed through a special viewer, called a stereoscope, that created the effect of a three dimensional image.
