Antique wood and brass wet plate negative holder. Scoville, mid-19th century. 12 x 10 in. Marked "Anthony".

A wet-plate negative holder from one of the most important photographic studios of the 19th century, the E. & H.T. Anthony & Company. 

This studio was originally founded by Edward Anthony in New York in 1842 as a daguerreotype gallery. In 1850, Anthony operated a shop dedicated to the production and sale of photographic cases, camera boxes, and photographic chemicals. His business continued to expand, and in 1852, his brother Henry T. Anthony joined the firm. 

Throughout the 1850s, the Anthony company maintained a close working relationship with famed photographer Mathew Brady. The most important photographer of the Civil War era, Brady produced iconic portraits of significant figures including President Lincoln. His studio, working with Alexander Gardner and other great photographers, also photographed the war on the frontlines, capturing battlefields, armies, and the citizens and landscape ravaged by war. The Anthony Co. published many of the over 7,000 pictures taken throughout the war and acquired the negatives in the 1870s in default of payment for photographic supplies. 

The wet-collodion process was invented in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer and involved adding soluble iodide to a solution of collodion and then coating a glass plate with the mixture. While still wet, the plate was exposed to the camera, followed by further chemical processes. The process allowed for an extreme level of detail and clarity. Both ambrotypes and tintypes were produced by wet plate methods. 

[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]