Ninth-plate studio portrait ambrotype. N.p., ca. mid-to-late 1850s. Housed in a full dark brown leatherette case. 

A wonderful portrait capturing a rather severe-looking woman holding a printed studio broadside directly facing the lens. Captured half-length, she wears a floral-sprigged day bodice with central button closure, a crisp white turned-down collar fastened with a brooch, and a dark shawl draped over her shoulders. Resting in her lap and angled forward to be legible in the exposure is a small printed broadside boldly headed across the bottom margin with the word "AMBROTYPES" beneath several lines of promotional text.

The deliberate display of commercial advertising material in an antebellum or Civil War-era portrait is exceedingly uncommon and points to several fascinating possibilities: the sitter is either an enthusiastic customer displaying the broadside to add intrigue to her portrait, or perhaps an early female ambrotypist advertising her own photographic rooms. Women actively participated in the wet-plate boom of the 1850s, as photographers, gallery proprietors, and studio technicians who worked behind the scenes. Regardless of the true story, the presence of the broadside in the ad is highly intriguing.

[Ambrotype, Ninth Plate, Occupational, Women in Photography, Female Photographer, Broadside, Handbill, Advertising, Ephemera, Star Mat, Daguerreian Era, Early Photography, Cased Image, 1850s Photography, Vernacular Americana]

Very good condition. The plate retains sharp focal resolution and strong contrast. The plate is very clean, save for light scattered dust.