Richard Beard - UNTITLED (PORTRAIT OF A FAMILIY) - image-1

Lot 700 Dα

Richard Beard - UNTITLED (PORTRAIT OF A FAMILIY)

Auction 970 - overview Cologne
02.12.2010, 00:00 - Photography
Estimate: 1.000 €
Result: 1.080 € (incl. premium)
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Daguerreotype lightly hand-tinted. 10 x 13.5 cm visible mat opening (case size 16.3 x 20.6 x 1.7 cm). Mounted under a gilt brass mat in a leather case with embossed name of the studio 'Beard's Photographic Institutions', the front lid lined with red velvet on the inside. - Slight scratches in the upper, lower and right image, otherwise very good condition.

After having acquired a licence which allowed him to produce photographs after the process invented by J.L.M. Daguerre, in London, march 1841 Richard Beard established the first commercial photographic portrait studio in Europe. Until that time, itinerant daguerreotypists who wandered from town to town had taken portraits of the local inhabitants. Beard's studio was so successful that he was able within a few years to establish numerous branches throughout Great Britain. In 1850, however, after having lost several cases concerning patent rights, he became insolvent.