Elegant man –portrait in original case. Measures: 7 x 5,5 cm. Excellent condition of the ambrotype. Only the case need a taping on the ends. The decoration is not included.
The ambrotype is a positive photograph on glass made by a variant of the wet plate collodion process. Like a print on paper, it is viewed by reflected light. Like the daguerreotype, which it replaced, and like the prints produced by a Polaroid camera, each is a unique original that could only be duplicated by using a camera to copy it. The ambrotype was introduced in the 1850s. Because of their fragility ambrotypes were usually kept in folding cases like those used for daguerreotypes (Wikipedia.com).