Sports Daguerrotypes and Ambrotypes

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Dags are kind of heavy, as they are photographs on copper plates. Ambros are constructed from two pieces of overlaid glass. Tintypes are photos on a thin piece of metal and are very light. Dags will create a mirror image, and tilted a certain way you can actually see your own reflection. You can't do this with an ambro or tintype.

I was at an antique shop a few years ago that had 15-20 ambrotypes. Since I had never seen either an ambrotype or a dag, I didn't immediately know what I was looking at, other than they weren't tintypes. They were priced at $50-100, so I didn't purchase one. Now I need to figure out where I saw them so I can go back and look at them more closely. Nothing special - just pics of couples and individuals - but they were fun to look at.

[ramram]

As with all images, it's still all about the content but I have seen some fairly common looking dags that are worth quite a bit just because of the quality. You would know if you saw one because you stop and say "wow".

Be careful Scott, sounds like you might be catching a new collecting bug!

Rob M.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by ramram

As with all images, it's still all about the content but I have seen some fairly common looking dags that are worth quite a bit just because of the quality. You would know if you saw one because you stop and say "wow".

Be careful Scott, sounds like you might be catching a new collecting bug!

Rob M.

Definitely not a new collecting bug - I figured I was paying $25 for the privilege of taking it home and carefully studying it. It was cheap enough that I can save it as an example for future reference.

[Beatles Guy]

I think $25 is a great price for that. I've got a few Ambros, no sports content though.

[barrysloate]

With daguerreotypes the value is in the composition and the quality of the image. What one typically finds is a portrait of an unknown person. If the image is bold and clear, if the subject is young and attractive, and if it is nicely hand colored, it is very collectable. Even more valuable are images of buildings, outdoor scenes, gold miners, soldiers, men holding the tools of their trade, children with toys, dogs (rare because it was hard to get a dog to sit perfectly still for a full minute), or anything that has some aesthetic quality. Many of those are thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars.

Plate size is a factor too. Dags and ambros can be found in full plate (about the size of a book cover), half plate, quarter plate, sixth plate and ninth plate sizes, as well as some oddball ones too. Dags are also found embedded in gold jewelry. Most common are sixth plates. Larger plates, especially full ones, are worth a large premium.

[1880nonsports]

I sold a great dag of a sheepdog on eBay to Graham Nash of Crosby Stills Nash and Young for around 1000.00. I have seen one sell in excess of 20,000.00. I have a small collection of dags and ambros featuring tobacco themes and a slightly larger collection of the cases they came in. Sealed and not cleaned is the preferred condition along with the photographer's attribution. Ambros were fragile short lived and never very popular. I missed out on a cigar roller ambro that went for 800. +. I've seen that girl and ball dag before and at least one other. I believe one day a BB dag will surface...........Just to note it is TOUGH to scan or digi pic a dag properly.

[barrysloate]

Henry- I'm not sure we will ever see a baseball dag. Dags fell out of favor in the late 1850's, and the number of baseball players who would have gone to a photographer then, much less in their baseball uniform, is slim and none. Nothing is impossible, but if you are saying we will find a dag with a man in uniform holding a bat and a ball, I will say it will never happen. But I hope I'm wrong.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by 1880nonsports

.........Just to note it is TOUGH to scan or digi pic a dag properly.

I thought my scan came out pretty good, but it doesn't look near as good as the actual piece. The 'negative' version was done with a camera, and is pretty crappy.