Eleven Daguerreotype Boston Area Sears/May Family Portraits

Description:

Eleven Daguerreotype Boston Area Sears/May Family Portraits, the portraits depicting members of two Boston-area families associated by marriage, each sitter identified on inscribed labels pinned to the velvet pads, comprising two quarter-plate portraits of Samuel Pearce May (1828-c. 1910),a sixth-plate portrait and a ninth-plate copy of a portrait of Samuel's first wife, Mary Jane (Sears) (1828-1860); four ninth-plate portraits: a portrait of the couple's deceased daughter Lucy R. May (1857-1859),an image of three of Mary Jane's younger siblings, a brother labeled "Richard W. Sears, 1835-1880 'Uncle Dick' April 1854," and a portrait of two sisters taken at a young age labeled "Emma Elizabeth Sears" (b. 1838) and "Adelaide (Addie) L. Sears" (b. 1840),and a portrait of a girl labeled "Mary Ann May"; each mounted in pressed-paper/leather cases, (imperfections).
Estimate $800-1,000

Each portrait has varying degrees of tarnish, spiders, corrosion, and dust. The sixteenth-plate copied portrait of Mary Jane is particularly tarnished, dusty and has two green corrosion spots; five of the cases are split.


The absence of a condition statement does not imply that the lot is in perfect condition or completely free from wear and tear, imperfections or the effects of aging. Condition requests can be obtained via email (lot inquiry button) or by telephone to the appropriate gallery location (Boston/617.350.5400 or Marlborough/508.970.3000). Any condition statement given, as a courtesy to a client, is only an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Skinner Inc. shall have no responsibility for any error or omission.

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