Cabinet Photo Native American Indian

This is a beautiful photograph of a Native American Indian.  His hair, face & clothing are very intricate and detailed.   This photograph is mounted on cardboard, with a photographer's printed name of Ellsworth Marks,  Clinton, Missouri.  The only problem is, this photo is almost certainly a reproduction.

This got me to thinking about what exactly is a reproduction, and how do you tell?  I'm certainly no expert, so these are very good questions for me.  And Cabinet Photos of American Indians seem to be prime reproduction material.  The originals are very expensive.

To me, a photo is original if it it is printed (in a non-digital manner) from the original negative.  So the original negative may be from the 1890s or so - if someone had that and took it to a dark room and printed the picture out yesterday, even on modern photographic paper, I would consider that original.  I suspect it would not be as valuable or collectible as something printed out in the 1890s with the technology & paper of the 1890s, but it would not be a reproduction. 

To me, a reproduction is a picture of a picture, whether that second picture was made with an old 35mm camera, or scanned into a computer.  Also if someone scanned an image of the negative into a computer then used photo shop to create a photo, that is obviously a reproduction. 

Someone went to the trouble to very carefully and skillfully mount this photograph on cardboard backing with photographer's information on it. It looks for all the world like a 19th century cabinet photo.If it was an original cabinet photo, a person may reasonably expect to receive hundreds of dollars for it - or more, depending.   But I've seen a lot of pictures like this (not this particular one, but cabinets of American Indians), and they're almost always considered reproductions.   The interesting thing is though, the people who say they are reproductions almost never say how they know that, so I'm left in the dark.

I'm familiar enough with late 19th century photographs to know that they are not black and white.  They are frequently very subtle shades of browns and grays, which are very hard to reproduce accurately in my eBay listings .  If a photo has a classic black and white look to it then it probably does not date from the 19th century. 

I also know that if a picture is printed off a computer, at some level you can see the pixels. Sometimes you can see it with the naked eye, sometimes you need a some magnification.  This one was definitely not printed from a computer.

Also, late 19th century photos are printed on very thin paper - this paper is not really thin, it looks to be a later vintage.  Maybe that's it, maybe that's how they tell, I'm not sure.

If I accept the fact that this is a repro, then at some point in the past someone used cardboard backing from Ellsworth Marks photography studio in Clinton, Missouri, and very skillfully mounted this photo on it, with an intent to deceive.   Maybe it was old Ellsworth himself, or maybe someone who came into possession of these items at a later time.  I don't know.  And I have no idea where the picture would have come from - did he get it from someone else?  Did he cut it out of a magazine (not likely).

This is probably a repro, if I am to believe stuff people say about photos like this.  Photos that are really too good to be true.  I just wish the people who seem so certain about these things would be a bit more open about how they know for sure. 

Even though this is most likely a reproduction, it is beautiful.  Chances are someone would like to have it.  I've scheduled it and others for sale in the eBay store, starting at about 10 PM tonight.  I'll be listing others throughout the week.

Update:  Sold!  (this one was a safe bet)

Ketchikan, Alaska, Eagle & Raven Totems Postcard

This is a standard/chrome postcard showing a couple of totems from Ketchikan, Alaska.  The back of the postcard says these are eagle & raven totems, and that's about all I know about it.

There is an address of the manufacturer on back, in the format of "Berkeley 2, Calif.".  This type of address was used pre-zip code days, from about 1943 to early 1963.  I can tell just by looking at the card that it was most likely made in the 1950s or later.  The card is probably over 50 years old.

Update: Sold!

Cabinet Photo Circa 1880s-1890s of an Indian Warrior

This looks like a person I would not want to tangle with out on the high plains in the late 19th century.   Even though this is a studio portrait, the fierceness and a complete ability to handle himself on horseback comes through.  Personally, I think this is a magnificent picture.

There is information below the image.  "Loves Horses" and some other words I can't decipher are handwritten.  The photographer information is printed below.  This particular photographer "A. Bogardus" had offices in New York City - we've sold photos by him before, but nothing like this.   Actually it looks like the photographers were Sherman & McHugh, successors to Bogardus.  Bogardus was a lot better known, I think.

We have several American Indian photos up for auction currently, and what we've found while researching is that frequently these photographers (or their agents, or perhaps free lancers) would head west, stay there sometimes for years,  take tons of pictures, bring them back east and sell them. So that's why you see these posed pictures for photographers working out of of New York City, Chicago, or West Superior, Wisconsin.

Although we don't claim to be experts, this looks to be an authentic period photograph.  By authentic I mean it's not a photograph of a photograph.  It's not a new reprint.  The mounting looks right, although it appears someone has trimmed to top at some point in the past (a very common occurrence).  If perchance it is a reprint, I'm pretty sure it's a 19th century reprint.

This is a "Cabinet Photo".  Cabinets were popular in the late 19th century, from about the 1870s on.  Typically it consists of an albumen print affixed to a 4 x 6 inch (give or take) cardboard backing.  The photo t is usually a bit smaller than the cardboard, of course.  Frequently the age of a photo can be estimated by the graphics on the cardboard - as time went along and printing techniques changed and improved, graphics, especially on back, got much more elaborate.  On the earlier cards the printing was much plainer.

This is a bit smaller than the standard Cabinet Photo - the whole thing measures 3.5 x 5 inches, or just a shade smaller than a standard sized postcard. The top has definitely been trimmed & it's possible the sides have too. 

I always worry about authenticity with items like this, but I see nothing about it that would cause me to think it was anything other than a 19th century photograph.  I like this one quite a bit.

Update:  This one sold!