Figure 1.--The back of this CDV shows a Toulouse studio active in the 1850s. The 1850 award presumably was for a Dag, but the 1858 award more likely was for a CDV. The CDV itself is undated, but presumably was taken in 1859 or the very early-60s. Click on the image to see the actual portrait.

The important early work in photography was done in France and England. French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce is credited with the achievement of creatingh the first permanent photograp (1826). He produced photographic images on polished pewter plate which he covered with a petroleum derivative called bitumen of Judea. The bitumen hardened when exposed to light. The unhardened material which were the dark areas of an image could then be washed away. The polished metal plate was a negative. Niépce produced a positive print by coating the pewter plare with ink and pressing it on paper. Next Niépce began experimenting with iron compounds. He had read about Johann Heinrich Schultz work with iron and chalk mixture that darkened when exposed to light (1724). Niépce (in Chalon-sur-Saône) began working with and Louis Daguerre (in Paris). Together they refined the silver process. Hercules Florence, a French-Brazilian painter and inventor, invented a silver process which he called Photographie. It does not seem to have made a major commercial impact. Niépce died of a stroke (1833). He left his papers and experimental notes to Daguerre who continued working to refine the still primitive photographic process. Daguerre was not a trained scientist. He managed, however, to make made two critical discoveries. First he found the critical neceessary chemical steps. This was a two step process. He used iodine vapour on the plate before exposing it tgo light. Then after the exposure he used mercury fumes. This brought out a latent image. Second, bathing the exposed plate in a salt bath fixed the image. Daguerre announced his invention (1839). Fox Talbot in England after hearing of Daguerre's success, announced his work. Commercial photography began with the Daguerreotype. While France was the leader in photography with the Daguerreotype, for some reason we have bren able to find few French dags and virtually no cased dags in shrp contrast to the huge number of Dags and Anbros we have found in America. . We are not sure why this is. One source says that the French government bought the patent and made it public domain. Our understanding is that Daguerre persued copyright struggles with immitators. The Daguerreotype was a huge hit in America and large numbers of studios were opened. Apparently this did not occur in France. As the name suggests, the origins of the carte-de-viste (CDV) using a negative process was French in the early 1850s. One source suugests (1851). Another source indicates that a French photographer, André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, introduced the CDV (1854). For some reason the CDV was not an immediate success. We do not begin to see many actual examples until the end of the decade. We see the Trantoul studio in Toulousea studio publicizing awards in 1850 and 1858 on the back of their CDV. We are guessing the 1850 award was for a Dag and the 1858 award was for a CDV (figure 1). Thus was about the time the popularity of the CDV format began to take off (1859-60). A portrait of Emperor Napoleon III seems to have begun the CDV craze.

Created: 10:49 AM 8/13/2016
Last updated: 10:49 AM 8/13/2016