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(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION—PHOTOGRAPHY.)
Pair of 1/6 plate Neff
tintypes, more than likely depicting slaves: housed in a double blind-stamped
leather case, with original clasps.
A man with crutches across his lap, and a woman in
“field” dress; slight wrinkle to the bottom quarter surface of the woman’s image, otherwise
both clear, crisp images.
Np, circa 1856-1860
[2,000/3,000]
A RARE PAIR OF NEFF PATENT TINTYPES
,
showing a man and woman, possibly husband and wife.
The man, dressed like a house servant, has a pair of crutches laid across his lap, and appears to be
glaring into the photographer’s lens. The woman, while appearing less angry, still looks like she’d
rather not be there. The Neff patent process was actually developed by Hamilton Smith, an Ohio
chemistry professor, who sold the patent to Peter Neff. The effect was a clarity normally found only in
an ambrotype, but at half the cost. Neff’s photographs were made between 1856 and 1860 or ‘61.