Portrait of Mr. Benedict, c.1870, Carte de visite, 105×65 mm, Photographer – Wiseman 9, Southampton, PhotoMuse Collection, 2018, Gift of Dr. Unni Krishnan Pulikkal, Source – Herbert Ascherman Collection.

Antique Prints, Collections

The carte de visite (visiting card), abbreviated CdV, was a type of small photograph which was patented in Paris by photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854, although first used by Louis Dodero. Each photograph was the size of a visiting card, and such photograph cards were commonly traded among friends and visitors in the…

Portrait of an American, c.1870, Carte de visite, 100×64 mm, Photographer – Theo Farringtons, Iowa, PhotoMuse Collection, 2018, Gift of Dr. Unni Krishnan Pulikkal, Source – Herbert Ascherman Collection.

Antique Prints, Collections

The carte de visite (visiting card), abbreviated CdV, was a type of small photograph which was patented in Paris by photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854, although first used by Louis Dodero. Each photograph was the size of a visiting card, and such photograph cards were commonly traded among friends and visitors in the…

Portrait of Baby, c.1880, Cabinet Card, 108 x165 mm, Photographer – Brown, N.Y., PhotoMuse Collection, 2018, Gift of Dr. Unni Krishnan Pulikkal, Source – Herbert Ascherman Collection.

Antique Prints, Collections

The cabinet card was a style of photograph which was widely used for photographic portraiture after 1870. It consisted of a thin photograph mounted on a card typically measuring 108 by 165 mm (4 1⁄4 by 6 1⁄2 inches). It was usually made of an albumen print, The cabinet card was larger and usually included…

Minox Wetzlar Model III Spy Camera, c. 1960, PhotoMuse Collection, 2014, Donation of Dr. Unni Krishnan Pulikkal, Source – Herbert Ascherman Collection.

Collections, Historic Cameras

The Minox subminiature camera, in its various models, was for years the world’s most widely used spy camera. The ultra-light aluminum shell Minox A/III was produced from 1954 until 1962. Because of its small size (82 x 28 x 16 mm), it was easy to conceal and operate in one hand. It could take excellent…

Holmes Stereoscope, 1850, PhotoMuse Collection, 2014, Gift of Dr. Unni Krishnan Pulikkal, Source – Herbert Ascherman Collection.

Accessories, Collections

The stereoscope, which dates from the 1850s, consisted of two prismatic lenses and a wooden stand to hold the stereo card. This type of stereoscope remained in production for a century and there are still companies making them in limited production currently. A stereoscope is a device for viewing a stereoscopic pair of separate images,…

Portrait of American Boys, c.1850, Daguerreotype, 70×55 mm, Unknown Photographer, PhotoMuse Collection, 2017, Gift of Dr. Unni Krishnan Pulikkal, Source – Mr. Dennis Waters, USA.

Antique Prints, Collections

The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process (1839-1860) in the history of 19th-century photography. Named after the inventor Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, each daguerreotype is a unique image on a silvered copper plate. To make the image, a daguerreotypist would polish a sheet of silver-plated copper to a mirror finish, treat it with fumes…