Michael Lehr Antiques
Live Auction

September 2026 Vernacular Photo History Auction

Sat, Sep 19, 2026 11:00AM EDT
  2026-09-19 11:00:00 2026-09-19 11:00:00 America/New_York Michael Lehr Michael Lehr : September 2026 Vernacular Photo History Auction https://auction.michaellehrantiques.com/auctions/michael-lehr-antiques/september-2026-vernacular-photo-history-auction-24380
Our September 2026 auction is anchored by two remarkable private collections, together making up about half the sale, alongside a broader selection of consignments spanning early photography, Civil War material, and vernacular imagery. The Soffer Collection, built with an eye for rarity and historical significance, is particularly strong in vernacular portraiture, Native American photographs, and Iowa Civil War imagery. The Palmer, Massachusetts collection, much of it found at Brimfield, centers on maker-marked daguerreotypes from the golden age of the American daguerreian studio.
Michael Lehr Antiques info@michaellehrantiques.com
Lot 474

Sixth Plate Daguerreotype, Young Man, Plumbe Studio

Estimate: $300 - $500
Starting Bid
$150

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$100 $10
$200 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
A young man, likely photographed in the early-to-mid 1840s, sits for a sixth plate daguerreotype produced at one of the celebrated Plumbe National Daguerreian Gallery studios. The image is housed in a leather case with a deeply embossed floral and urn design on the cover and retains its original gold-painted mat. The mat is stamped "PLUMBE" in raised letters at the lower corner, confirming the studio attribution consistent with John Plumbe Jr.'s practice of branding all images produced across his network of galleries.

The subject is a young man of perhaps eighteen to twenty-five years, with straight fair hair swept behind the ears and a steady, composed gaze directed at the lens. He wears a dark frock coat over a voluminous dark cravat patterned with small white dots, with a white shirt collar visible beneath. His pose is a three-quarter bust, turned slightly left, and his expression is calm and self-possessed.

John Plumbe Jr. (1809-1857), Welsh-born civil engineer and pioneering photographer, built one of the earliest franchise networks in American commercial photography, operating as many as twenty-five galleries across the United States and abroad between approximately 1842 and 1848. His studios were staffed by operators whose work was uniformly branded under the Plumbe name, making studio-specific attribution within the network difficult to establish. The "PLUMBE" stamp on the mat is the hallmark that defined his enterprise.

The name "PLUMBE" is stamped in raised relief on the interior gold mat of the case.

Property of a Palmer, Massachusetts gentleman.

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