EXCEPTIONALLY RARE AND IMPORTANT AMBROTYPE DEPICTING AN AFRICAN AMERICAN MAN WEARING A CONFEDERATE UNIFORM

Sixth plate hand-tinted and gilt ambrotype. Richmond, Virginia: [Studio of Charles R. Rees], ca 1861. Half leatherette case. 

Provenance: Ed and Pam Duer Collection

Exhibited: "The Confederate Years, 1861-1865". Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia, 2000-2001

Publications: Bill Archer. "'I was sent to the service of the Confederacy': Samuel Walker: Slave, Freedman, and Pensioner, 1842-1933." Virginia Cavalcade. Vol. 41, no. 1 (Winter 2001), p. 46. 

An important and exceptionally rare Civil War ambrotype depicting an unidentified African American man in Confederate uniform, seated for his portrait in the Richmond studio of Charles R. Rees. The sitter wears a plain Confederate shell jacket of jean-cloth type with shoulder tabs. Richmond itself was the capital of the Confederacy during the war, making the place of production especially significant.

The rarity of this portrait can scarcely be overstated. In describing its major collection of Civil War ambrotypes and tintypes, the Library of Congress identifies photographs of African Americans in Confederate uniform as “among the rarest images” in the surviving corpus. While the subject’s precise role within the Confederate military sphere may never be known, nor the degree of his agency or willingness, what can be said with confidence is that surviving wartime images of African American men in Confederate uniform are extraordinarily few.

Charles Richard Rees (1830-1914) is best known for his portraits of Confederate soldiers featuring superb clarity, expert coloring, and a "pearl-like" quality to their emulsion.  Among collectors, he is widely considered the greatest Southern portrait photographer operating during the Civil War. This image is an important and unique addition to his known work. 

This lot is accompanied by letters of insurance and provenance from when the ambrotype was exhibited at the American Civil War Museum in 2000 and its publication in Virginia Cavalcade in 2001.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]  [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards, Stereographs]