Quote:
Originally Posted by oldjudge
First, Jimmy made a great point before which has not been addressed. What are the markings on the dag? If we can date it we may be able to say for certain whether it could be Cartwright. If it dates from post 1849 then it can't be Cartwright as that is when he left for the Gold Rush and ended up in Hawaii. If dating is not possible, or it dates from before Cartwright's departure, then it's back to facial recognition.
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To my knowledge there are no markings on the dag. However, based on the plain brass matting, it is consistent with dags produced in the mid 1840's (the early stage of daguerreotypes). By the 1850's, the matting become more ornate. This is a great point that Jimmy raises and one that 20 years ago when I purchased the dag I looked into closely.
Assuming one accepts that the dag comfortably dates to the period that Cartwright was in NYC, may I add that besides being back to facial analysis we are also back to provenance analysis.