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 303

CDV of Native American Woman and Two Children, Pottstown, PA

Estimate: $200 - $300
Starting Bid
$100

Bid Increments

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Poignant carte de visite portrait of a Native American woman seated between two children, likely her sons, photographed in a professional studio setting. The woman wears a traditional Native dress adorned with decorative beadwork and long necklaces, while the boys wear matching suits with patterned neckerchiefs. The composition emphasizes familial bonds, with each child posed close to her side, hands resting gently upon her lap or shoulder.

The reverse bears an elaborate floral backmark with the studio name "Sanneskey" and address at 360 High Street, Pottstown, Pennsylvania. While the specific tribal affiliation is not noted, the image reflects the transitional period of Native life in the late 19th century, where elements of cultural identity persisted even as assimilation pressures increased. Such portraits offer rare visual documentation of Indigenous families during this complex era in American history.

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