Beschreibung:

[DAGUERREOTYPE-PORTRAIT] Ninth-plate daguerreotype. [Woman in bonnet]. English: circa 1845. Signed "Beard Patentee" on the gilt overmat. Housed in a clasped leather case. A few minor spots of oxidation to the image, but case and image overall in sound condition. Though he opened the first portrait studio in England in 1841, Beard was primarily active in the granting of licenses to his proprietary processes (these cost upwards of a thousand pounds per year). Approved products were identified with the "Beard Patentee" mark, as here (these fittings were probably made by Thomas Wharton a Birmingham manufacturer). C