Discovering ANTIQUES

Black Americana
“No Massa, I don’ steal yo chickens!”
Claude-Antoine Lumière who lived from 1840 to 1911, and
ran a photographic firm in Lyon, France. This firm took
many pictures of France, and many of them have been
processed on glass. Sets of these can be purchased in glass
stereographs in which photos of Paris, Fontainebleau, and
the Palace of Versailles are available. These sets often come
with their own stereoscope, of which the body is made of
cardboard.
Dating Stereographs
Before the 1860s stereographs were generally
mounted on a thin stock, mostly ivory or off-white. At
times these were also produced in lavender, lilac, and pink
mounts. From 1861 to approximately 1873, stereographs
were mounted on yellow, reddish orange, green, pink, or
lilac cards. Before 1865 the mounts had square corners,
while after that they had rounded corners. The earliest
Cotton pickers under the watchful eye of the Overseer
stereographs were mounted on flat cards. In 1882 Benjamin
West Kilburn, an American photographer and publisher of
stereographs began publishing cards on thicker mounts
that were curved to enhance the stereo effect. To gain
more information regarding the dating of stereographs I
recommend the book, Stereoviews An Illustrated History &
Price Guide. This book was written by John Waldsmith, and
has an incredible amount of excellent information.
Photographers and Publishers
Stereoscopy became the craze during the Victorian
era. As you can imagine, being able to sit in a comfortable
chair in your parlor, looking at three dimensional pictures
of things that had hardly ever been photographed before,
was quite the treat! Everyone wanted one, and that created
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The Klondike
Dawson City, Alaska
Prospectors fight the cold on the Klondike
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