Lot 42 email save

ARTIST AS BABY DAGUERREOTYPE FARIS, CINCINNATI.

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I was first attracted by the striking representation of what I presumed to be the mother represented only by her arm and hand. A period card reads "Dwight Williams Huntington Brother of Grace Huntington... and his nurse." So it's the nurse. On a whim I looked up Huntington and found that he was born in 1851. He had a distinguished career as a jurist and served on the Ohio House of Representatives. He was a successful artist and gave up his legal and political career to devote himself to his art, working at it for the last decade of his life (1906 - 15) in Yonkers NY. His 1898 book "In Brush, Sedge and Stubble" deals with game hunting, especially in the West. It is illustrated with his watercolors as well as "on location photographs of Indian encampments." [Amazing how many of Be-hold's interests are represented in this piece.] Above all this is a wonderfully artful 1/6 plate daguerreotype in an oval mat stamped "Faris." There is a slight spot and scratch on the baby's eye and cheek that doesn't disturb. In a leather case with its original spine. See Lot 52 for an ambrotype by Faris. [D3+]

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