Experts
HI everyone! I woke up to some good news in my inbox this morning. I heard back from three more stereoview experts: The American Museum of Photography, AmericanPhotographs.com, and Stereoscopy Blog. All are worldwide-recognized photo experts, specifically stereoviews. I sent mine to them with no mention of Knickerbockers or anything else. Just asked if they could date it. All three said mid-late 1850s, with the absolute latest possibility being very early-1860s if it's British or the photographer had an older mounting card lying around. They also feel that it's an original albumen photograph taken with an early stereoview camera, not copied from an earlier picture. The evidence cited for that is a lack of movement of the subjects, and the overlap on the very left of the left picture which is not evident on the right one (I am posting that below). It seems that earlier stereoviews were transposed, meaning that the picture taken with the left camera lens was put on the the right side of the stereoview card, and the right one was placed on the left.
One of them asked if I knew who the subjects were, and I wrote back with my Knickerbocker comparisons and mentioned that a few experts on this board were adament that the stereoview had to be from the 1870s. She said she can see the resemblances, and is absolutely 100% certain that it is much earlier than the 1870s. Of course, you can make your own judgments, but I'm now 4-4 in stereoview experts saying 1850s. But I know that's just the first hurdle. I recognize that I now have to prove the IDs....
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