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Dorothea Neff daguerreotype, 1853

Permanent ID:
5875
Date:
circa 1853
Image Description:
Image: 1/6 plate; Seated woman wearing a sheer daycap and a dark long-sleeved dress or cloak with a high collar, gathers at the shoulder and cuffs at the wrist, buttoned at the front and pleated at the waist, holding a small beaded or printed fabric bag in her hand on her lap. Preserver: Straight, narrow, embossed with simple pattern (after 1850). Mat: Oval with sandy finish (late 1840s). Case: Leather-covered wood-frame embossed with a common "Thistle Motif" [Plate 119 page 115 of "American Miniature Case Art" by Floyd and Marion Rinhart (Cranbury, New Jersey: A. S. Barnes and Co., Inc., 1969)] both front and back, gilded edge trim in interior, red velvet pinchpad, and red velvet cushion embossed with a floral design (1850s).
Inscription:
(ink on paper): Dorothea Neff, / née Metzger, my / great-great-great grandmother / who came to Philadelphia / from Baden-Baden, Germany, / about 1802 with her husband, / Johan Jacob Neff, and infant son, / J. J. Neff, and step daughter Harriet, / the child of her husband's first marriage / to Katerina Metzger, who was her 1st / cousin. (Enclosed note)
Format:
Daguerreotype
Dimensions:
Width: 7 cm, Height: 8.2 cm (image)
Width: 2 3/4 in, Height: 3 7/32 in (image)
Width: 8.1 cm, Height: 9.2 cm, Depth: 1.8 cm (case)
Width: 3 3/16 in, Height: 3 5/8 in, Depth: 23/32 in (case)
Collection:
Historical Society of Pennsylvania cased photographs collection
Related People or Organizations:
Neff, Dorothea (depicted)
Neff, J. J. (relates to)
Neff, Johan Jacob (relates to)
Darby, Delphine F. (was donated by)
Library of Congress Subjects:
Daguerreotype [sh85035408]
Portrait photography--United States [sh2010107725]