Description
A very scarce photographic image of the assistants to French magician Herrmann the Great. Their dresses feature occult style star patterns which also graces their unique headware each is holding. Housed in a complete 6th plate paper mache case with good spine and complete clasp. The inside left panel holds a decorative brown felt pad while the right panel holds the simple yet elegant copper frame mats and the tintype image. The back of the tintype has an archival seal with a contemporary notation stating ‘Magicians assistants Herrmann the Great 1875 Ottawa Canada’
Alexander Herrmann (February 10, 1844 – December 17, 1896), better known as Herrmann the Great, was a 19th-century French magician. His wife, Adelaide Herrmann, was famously known as the “Queen of Magic.”
A tintype, also known as a melanotype or ferrotype, was introduced in the mid-19th century. Essentially it’s a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal, colloquially called ‘tin’, coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as the support for the photographic emulsion. The tintype, was essentially a variation on the ambrotype, which was a unique image made on glass.
3.125 x 3.75 inches
