Michael Lehr Antiques
Live Auction

Winter Photographic History Auction 2026

Sat, Jan 31, 2026 01:00PM EST
Lot 197

Daguerreotype Portrait of Three Siblings

Estimate: $100 - $200

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $10
$200 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
Sixth plate daguerreotype studio portrait depicting three children identified as siblings, two girls and a younger boy, posed formally against a plain backdrop. The image shows the children dressed in period clothing, with the two girls wearing matching dresses and center-parted hair styled in ringlets, and the boy standing at right in a dark buttoned jacket. The photographic format and tonal qualities are consistent with a mid-19th-century daguerreotype.

The composition emphasizes familial grouping and physical closeness, with the children arranged in a tight triangular pose typical of studio portrait conventions of the period. The presence of carefully coordinated attire and the calm, direct gazes suggest a formal sitting intended for family remembrance.

Housed in a hinged case with a gilt mat surrounding the image and a velvet-lined interior. The exterior case is embossed with decorative floral and scroll motifs. No photographer’s imprint or identifying text is visible.

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The Elsa Schaar Collection is a large, intact assemblage of early American photographic portraiture dating circa 1839–1870, formed primarily between the 1920s and 1950s by collector and antiques dealer Elsa Schaar Beugler Haase (1894–1976). The collection comprises 453 photographic works, including 258 daguerreotypes and ambrotypes in a wide range of original cases, 139 tintypes, 56 carte-de-visite photographs, and several Civil War–era and tintype albums. Elsa Schaar, based largely in Elmira, New York, actively bought, sold, and corresponded with collectors nationwide, often through ads in Hobbies (later Antiques & Collecting Magazine), developing a focused interest in early portrait photography. Following her death, the collection passed intact to her brother, architect William R. Schaar, and is now being offered by his descendants, preserving a clear and well-documented line of descent spanning more than a century