[GROUP OF THREE DAGUERREOTYPE PORTRAITS OF SAUL B. SMITH, AN AMERICAN WHO WENT TO CALIFORNIA DURING THE GOLD RUSH AND WHO TRAVELLED TO CHINA AS WELL]

by [Daguerreotype Portraits]: Smith, Saul B.:

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Description

[Np. nd, ca. 1845-1855].. Two sixth-plate (2 3/4 x 3 1/4 inches) and one quarter- plate (3 3/4 x 4 1/4 inches) daguerreotypes. All three in original velvet-lined patterned- leather cases, original clasps intact. Front cover of one case detached, but present. Some spotting on the images, but on the whole in very good condition. An attractive collection of three daguerreotype portraits of one Saul B. Smith, who apparently traveled to China, and to California during the Gold Rush. The images show Smith at three stages in life, from his early twenties to his mid-thirties. He is dressed formally in all three pictures, and appears to have been well- born. Little is known of Mr. Smith beyond the scant information provided by the later manuscript notes which accompany the daguerreotypes. The earliest image, a sixth- plate daguerreotype which shows Smith at about age 20, carries a note that reads "Saul B. Smith while in college went to China and back." In this image Smith faces the camera head-on, and he is clean-shaven and his cheeks are tined a light pink. In what appears to be the next image chronologically, Smith is shown in a quarter-plate daguerreotype with a beard without mustache looking off to his right (which appears to be his left in the reversed image). The note accompanying the image reads "Saul B. Smith taken 1849 just before going to California." In this picture Smith appears to be about twenty- five years old. The third image, another sixth- plate daguerreotype, shows Smith at about age thirty or thirty- five. He again looks off to his right in a near profile portrait, and he sports a goatee. The note laid into this image reads "Saul B. Smith between '49 - '55 in California." An intriguing trio of images of a young man who travelled to Gold Rush California and also to China, meriting further study.