Antoine Claudet

[Karen Hellman]

I am writing a PhD dissertation on Antoine Claudet at the City University of New York (with advisor Geoffrey Batchen). I have visited several public and private collections in the States and the UK but if anyone has suggestions as to new places to look for Claudets I would appreciate it.

[James Morley]

Karen, apologies in that I cannot help with your quest, but I was wondering if you knew if there were any records as to who sat for Claudet during the period 1847-51? The image I use as my profile image here is a Claudet daguerreotype dating to that period, and I'd love to find out who it might be!

[Michael Pritchard]

James - Unfortunately there are no daybooks extant from Claudet's studio which would identify his sitters. After he died in 1867 there was a fire shortly afterwards at his studio which destroyed pretty much everything. There was an auction of some of his material after his death and last year I managed to idnetify where and when this took place and tracked down a copy of the auction catalogue. Although it included plenty of other material this did not include any daybooks...

Regards Michael Pritchard

[Marcel Safier]

Hi Karen, hopefully your appeal to this forum will flush out some further information and images from the esteemed members here. In our previous correspondence I have concentrated on Claudet's daguerre0type work but I am very interested in the early days of the carte de visite and no doubt your PhD will cover this period of his career as well. Do you see any parallels between Claudet and the other French photographers active in London during the 1860s such as Silvy, Daubray, Vaissier and Joubert etc? Do we know if he friendly with any of them? I can forward you ads relating to the cdv period of his career if you don't already have them. From my observation his output of cdvs was meagre compared to his contemporaries. Cheers! Marcel.

[Ken Jacobson]

Dear Karen,

You probably know this already, but I have recently been reading Richard Morris' 1997 Daguerreian Annual article on Llewelyn and the daguerreotype. As well as discussing the experiments between Claudet & Llewelyn, it also interestingly describes a visit by the Llewelyn family to Claudet and Houghton to obtain some daguerreotypes.
I also have a question, please. I'm trying to read what important daguerreotypists had to say about the process. Claudet was usually very serious and technical in his writings. I wonder if you have come across anything where he describes the aesthetics or pleasure of taking and looking at daguerreotypes?
I hope you received my e-mail of a few months ago about Beard stereo-daguerreotypes and your exhibition in 2011 (?).
Best,
Ken

[Marc Boulay]

Dear Karen,

We only have a few Claudet daguerreotypes in our collection. These are in stereo format and are scheduled for conservation treatment this summer. One image is a group portrait featuring Hugh Lyon Playfair of St Andrews. Feel free to contact me if these are of interest.

Best wishes,
Marc

[Marc Boulay]

Dear Karen,

I just did a little more digging and was slightly mistaken. Only one of the images is confirmed to be by Claudet, the others are not attributed but have the same provenance. These daguerreotypes had belonged to James David Forbes. The full description of the Claudet image is as follows: Still in original cloth bound hard case with Mr Claudet, 107 Regent street in gold lettering. Image damaged but just visible are four men, one standing and four seated around a table with a piece of equipment? on it. [Identified as J D Forbes, Rev William Brown, Hugh Lyon Playfair and Dr George Buist]. On back is decorative label of "Mr Antoine Claudet, 107 Regent
Street", by royal patent "Daguerrotypes, Miniatures, plain, coloured and non-inverted daguerrotype portraits".

I hope this clarification helps.
All the best,
Marc

[Karen Hellman]

Dear Marc,
Thank you so much for sending this information and image along. I would be interested to see the one of the Forbes group post-conservation so will be in touch a little later on. Many thanks for contacting me!
Karen

Marc Boulay said:

Dear Karen,

I just did a little more digging and was slightly mistaken. Only one of the images is confirmed to be by Claudet, the others are not attributed but have the same provenance. These daguerreotypes had belonged to James David Forbes. The full description of the Claudet image is as follows: Still in original cloth bound hard case with Mr Claudet, 107 Regent street in gold lettering. Image damaged but just visible are four men, one standing and four seated around a table with a piece of equipment? on it. [Identified as J D Forbes, Rev William Brown, Hugh Lyon Playfair and Dr George Buist]. On back is decorative label of "Mr Antoine Claudet, 107 Regent
Street", by royal patent "Daguerrotypes, Miniatures, plain, coloured and non-inverted daguerrotype portraits".

I hope this clarification helps.
All the best,
Marc

[Alan Lesheim]

Just stumbled across this thread, and I have an absolutely beautiful pair of stereos of Julia Cameron, nee Buckley, taken 1853-4 at 107 Regent St which I'm more than happy to help you out with high-res copies obverse & reverse, including the case, if you wish?

[Rachel Goldberg]

Dear Karen,

I have been doing some research on European daguerreotype portraits and have come across a couple of Claudets in the collection at the Rijksmuseum. You can view them at: http://www.earlyphotography.nl.

Best,
Rachel

[Jan Dollar]

Hi Karen
I have what I think is a Claudet Daguerreotype.
On the front of the case it has a royal coat of arms, CLAUDET and 107 Regent St Quadrant.
It is a picture of 2 boys, one in a military looking uniform, aged about 10-12.The picture is quite difficult to see but I would be glad to send you a photo of it if you could tell me the best way to do it.
I would like to be able to identify it and, as I am interested in genealogy, have a few ideas as to who the boys might be.Dating the photo would help with that too.
Best wishes
Jan

[Meir Berk]

Hello Karen,
I have a fair collection of Claudet dags,including three stereo dags.
They date from different periods and studios with several different logos on the cases.
None bar one are identified .
Please let me know how I can help.
Regards,
Meir