One of the Rarest CDVs in West Chester
Collecting historical photographs – particularly cartes-de-visite (photographic visiting cards) can become a passion. Not only are the portraits and subjects intriguing, but how many different photographers’ studios can you find? This is what motivated me to try to find every photographer (or at least as many as possible!) in Chester County Pennsylvania.
What features should the collector look for? Value is determined for the collector by these four factors: quality of the image, condition, scarcity and demand. Today we are going to look at some of the scarcest CDV photographer imprints to collect.
One that may well be one of the rarest is R. M. J. Reed. It took me many years just to finally discover that his first name was Richard – then I could identify who he was and how long we was in West Chester. You can now read his biography and see an example of his imprint – the only one found in the massive photo archives collection at the Chester County History Center.
Carte-de-visite imprint of R. M. J. Reed, 1867. Note how few negatives he has taken as of this date only 270.
Another unique and rare example is that of E. Smedley, who instead of buying preprinted mounts with his name – simply hand wrote his business information on the verso of the carte!
E. Smedley, verso CDV, ca. 1870.
Other CDV photographers who stayed less than a year in West Chester included: Batten & Finney, B. Dickinson, Charles Duval, Duval & West, R. B. Mulford, Odiorne & Shrieves and W. W. Roberts. This makes their work highly collectible.
So why did some CDV photographers not stay very long in their studios? I notice that some of the studio addresses used by photographers seemed to turn over rather quickly. They may have been there only a few months, then were gone. Some simply moved on to another town. Others were done with the business. What was happening here? Did they think they could be a photographer after a few quick lessons and then make a fortune? Or did the failed photographers look out for the next gullible person to sell the gallery to?
The successful photographers only succeeded after having an adequate apprenticeship under another photographer. They may have worked as assistants under others for years before going out on their own. A couple of cases in point are Edward S. Marshall worked for Garrett for seven years before having his own gallery, likewise W. F. Grubb worked under Thomas W. Taylor.
Check the Working Dates list for more information and enjoy your collecting!
