Richard Beard Studio
1845
[Case with fourteen daguerreotypes of participants prior to departure on the ill-fated Franklin Expedition]
[British Naval Northwest Passage Expedition 1845-1848]

Daguerreotypes (x14), cased
Sotheby's - London
Travel, Atlases, Maps, Photographs & Natural History, 7 September 2023, Lot 265
 
Franklin Expedition—Richard Beard Studio
 
A unique set of 14 daguerreotypes of the officers of the Franklin expedition, 1845
 
14 sixth-plate daguerreotypes (70 x 83mm.), each hand-tinted with shell gold applied to the buttons, hat bands and epaulettes of the officers' jackets, all but one sealed, each inscribed on the verso (in ink or etched with a stylus, denoting name and sometimes rank of sitter, name of ship on which they served, and date), housed in a contemporary partitioned, book-form morocco case (203 x 339 x 22mm.), the daguerreotypes presented in four rows, blind-tooling around edges of lid and tray and to outer edges and inner faces of side walls, inner surface of compartments lined with glazed burgundy cloth, accompanied by a manuscript list of officers in ink on laid paper.
 
PROVENANCE:
 
Family of Sir John Franklin, by direct descent.
 
LL/127234