Unknown Photographer Double-portrait of two well-dressed gentlemen with hands clasped, c. 1850s Sixth-plate daguerreotype; cased. the plate 3 1/4 x 2 3/4 in. (8.3 x 7 cm.) overall case 3 3/4 x 3 1/4 x 1/2 in. (9.5 x 8.3 x 1.3 cm.) Footnotes: Note Portraits of men posed in close physical intimacy, with arms draped over shoulders, hands clasped, heads inclined together, or one resting against the other, recur throughout photography's first century. They appear in daguerreotypes and tintypes, studio cartes de visite and cabinet cards, and later in amateur snapshots and photobooth strips. Many of these pictures record friendship, fraternity or comradeship. Others almost certainly preserve romantic partnerships that could not be acknowledged openly. Because the two readings cannot always be separated, the motif stands as a record of both the shifting boundaries of acceptable male affection and a largely hidden history of same-sex love. Though the well-dressed pair portrayed in the present lot have not been identified, the gesture of their affection, as preserved in this sixth-plate daguerreotype, retains meaning and transcends the passage of more than 175 years. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing