Figure 1.--This 1860s hand-painted portrait over a photograph was created by the W. L. Germon studio in Philadelphia , 703 Chestnut St., Philadelphia. It is the earliesr wall frame we have archived on HBC. The frame is ebonized wood with a gold liner. The inside oval measures 6-1/2” X 5” and the outside frame dimensions are approximately 10” X 8-1/2”.

Negatives also enabled photographic studios to print enlargements that could be framed for wall displays. We are not sure just when the first walll frame appeared, but we see them in the 1860s. A reader tells us that there were Daguerreotype and Ambrotype wall hangings. We don't think that they were very common. Daguerrotypes theoretically could be framed, but large format Dags would have been very expensive and we have not yet found examples. Small Dags would not have made very satisfactory wall hangings as you would need to be very close to see the image. Negative-basef CDVs were primarily displayed in albums. With the creation of the cabinet card (1866) we begin to have images big enough to frame. And just propping them up in cabinets was not a very successful way of sisplaying them. We note an early tin-tyype portrait of Detroit brothers that was framed for a wall hanging, probably in the late-1860s. It was still quite small. The development of negative based photography provided a sustem in which photographs could be emlarged for good sized wall hangings.

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Created: 1:11 AM 6/10/2010
Last updated: 1:11 AM 6/10/2010