Figure 1.--This colorized miniature Ambrotype portrait of an English girl, Gertrude Stallibrass, in a leather bound book frame case. The case is a textured leather with clasp, inside there is red velvet cushion lining on one side and an ornate gilt metal inner mount for the portrait. The frame measures 74 mm x 60 mm x 15 mm (when closed). A handwritten notes identifies and dates the child. Gertrude was born in 1854. She looks to be 5 years old which would mean the portrait was taken in 1859. Notice the book. Boys were often pictured with books because more boys went to school than girls at the time. Here we have a girl at a very young age. That may nean that she was a rather clever little girl. Gertrude tragically died in 1862at 8 years of age. Click on the image ti see the box case.

We know Ambros appeared in the mid-1850s, invented by Englishman Frederick Scott Archer. It is known as an Ambrotype because James Ambrose Cutting in America took out a patent on the process, essentially stealing the process--and his name stuck. The Ambro on the previous page looks lke he 1850s to us. Other processes such as the inexpensive tin-type appeared about the same time. And even more importantly, the CDV appeared in the very late-1850s. The CDV first appeared in France during the late-1850s, but was not yet a dominant format. The Ambro had an advantage over Dags because they were less expensive, but like the Dag could not be reproduced. They were earlier to colorize. The polished metal plate made Dags expensive. Ambros in America primarily dated to the late-1860s and early-60s. Onc CDVs became popular in the 60s Ambos and Dags rapidly decclined. We suspect this was also the case in England. We have not found many English Ambros, in contrast to the wealth of ambros in America, so can not make much of an acessment at this time. We believe a major factor here was patent law and the more aggressive business activity in America. It is interesting that there are so many more American Abros even though the process was invented in England. The cased Ambro here is done differently than the cased portraits in America (figure 1). The case is more of a square-cornored box. We have not seen American Ambros done this way. We are not sure yet how common this was. And we see some ambros with our any case at all. We note one 1850s Ambro wuth a Barnstble boy wearing a decorated tunic. It was dene to be hung with wire attached with wax on the back

Created: 10:39 AM 9/15/2017
Last updated: 10:39 AM 9/15/2017