Unidentified photographer
1850s
Bond & Mollyneaux Groceries and Provissions [sic],

Daguerreotype, whole plate
Swann Galleries - New York
Courtesy of Swann Galleries (Auction, Oct 15, 2007, #2124, Lot 35)
 
Whole-plate daguerreotype depicting Bond & Mollyneaux Groceries and Provissions [sic], with a broadside advertising Mexican Mustang Liniment [sic] and signage for attorney George F. Putnam on the front of the building, and several laborers posing in the doorway; in a mother-of-pearl case, split and worn.
 
A handsome and well-composed image in which a group of men are artfully arranged in front of Bond & Mollyneaux's shop. The graphic quality of the signage, particularly the panel reading "bakery," indicates that the photographer created the picture to document the services the business offered, although the laborers in the foreground add a colorful dimension to the scene. At right, the ghost-like figure of a young child clings to a gentleman in the doorway, and a laborer at the far right appears to be unaware of the camera as he lifts a heavy sack.
 
LL/23148