Fall Photographic History Auction, 2025 2025-09-06 Auction - 284 Price Results - Michael Lehr Antiques in NJ
Iconic CDV African American Image "The Scourged Back"Sixth Plate Daguerreotype Self-Portrait with Chamfered Box CameraEdward S. Curtis “Homeward" 1898 Orotone Photograph
Done
Rockaway, NJ, United States
Auction Details

Fall Photographic History Auction, 2025

We are pleased to announce our next auction, featuring approximately 200 individual lots drawn from a diverse and compelling range of 19th- and early 20th-century photography. This sale focuses on vernacular images, photographs created not as formal studio portraits or elite commissions, but as direct, unscripted records of lived experience. These are objects made by and for everyday people, preserving moments of intimacy, labor, travel, performance, identity, and loss. The auction spans the full range of early photographic formats, daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, CDVs, stereoviews, and albumen prints, and includes powerful portraits, occupational scenes, rural tableaus, outdoor views, and images that blur the line between documentation and folk art. Many are housed in thermoplastic or stamped leather cases, others are studio-mounted or album-assembled, but all are visually and historically resonant. Whether showing Civil War soldiers, storefronts, Native American subjects, musicians, seaside amusements, or mourning rituals, the photographs in this offering represent photography at its most immediate and democratic. Collectors of vernacular photography, Americana, and 19th-century material culture will find an abundance of unique, visually arresting, and historically layered images throughout the catalog.
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Iconic CDV African American Image "The Scourged Back": Powerful Civil War-era carte de visite depicting the formerly enslaved man known as Gordon, photographed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1863. The image shows Gordon seated in profile with his back
0117: Iconic CDV African American Image "The Scourged Back"Est. $6,000-$9,000
Sold
CDV of Lt. H.S. Barney, 117th USCT, by J.P. Ball: A rare and significant carte de visite portrait of Lieutenant H.S. Barney of the 117th United States Colored Troops, photographed by the prominent African American photographer J.P. Ball at his
0118: CDV of Lt. H.S. Barney, 117th USCT, by J.P. BallEst. $200-$300
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Gem Tintype of Girl with Black Cloth Doll: Gem tintype captures a poised young sitter holding her beloved companion. A plaid dress with puffed sleeves and lace collar frames the face, while a jaunty cap adds studio-day flair. The doll wears a
0121: Gem Tintype of Girl with Black Cloth DollEst. $300-$500