Michael Lehr Antiques
Live Auction

Fall Photographic History Auction, 2025

Sat, Sep 6, 2025 01:00PM EDT
  2025-09-06 13:00:00 2025-09-06 13:00:00 America/New_York Michael Lehr Michael Lehr : Fall Photographic History Auction, 2025 https://auction.michaellehrantiques.com/auctions/michael-lehr-antiques/fall-photographic-history-auction-2025-20189
We are pleased to announce our next auction, featuring approximately 200 individual lots drawn from a diverse and compelling range of 19th- and early 20th-century photography. This sale focuses on vernacular images, photographs created not as formal studio portraits or elite commissions, but as direct, unscripted records of lived experience. These are objects made by and for everyday people, preserving moments of intimacy, labor, travel, performance, identity, and loss.
Michael Lehr Antiques info@michaellehrantiques.com
Lot 159

Cabinet Card Portrait of Photographer J.B. Weigand with His Camera

Estimate: $200 - $300
Starting Bid
$100

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Studio cabinet card depicting J.B. Weigand, identified as the photographer and proprietor, posed with his large-format bellows camera in Marathon, Wisconsin. Standing confidently beside a draped table that supports the camera, Weigand places one hand on the camera’s focusing knob while the other rests at his vest, accentuating a period-appropriate watch chain and three-piece suit. The studio backdrop features ornate architectural elements and patterned curtains, providing a visually rich setting indicative of late 19th-century portrait studios.

The bottom mount is elegantly stamped “J. B. Weigand, Marathon, Wis.,” identifying both the subject and his studio location. Photographer portraits with their own equipment are highly sought after as both occupational studies and personal declarations of professional identity. The detailed presence of the camera—a bellows-style view camera common to the era—emphasizes the pride and technical craft of a working small-town photographer at the turn of the century.

Images like this not only document early photographic practice in rural America but also serve as rare self-representations from within the field. A compelling artifact from the Midwest’s local studio tradition.

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