Josiah Johnson Hawes
[Martha Ripley Hawley and her Daughter-in-Law Harriet Tobey Hawley]

Public Domain

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Images(6)

Artist Josiah Johnson Hawes(American, 1808–1901)American, 1808–1901

Artist Albert Sands Southworth(American, 1811–1894)American, 1811–1894

CultureAmerican

Titles

[Martha Ripley Hawley and her Daughter-in-Law Harriet Tobey Hawley]

Date1850–1855

MediumDaguerreotype

DimensionsImage: 8 1/8 × 6 1/8 in. (20.6 × 15.6 cm)
Closed: 9 × 7 3/16 × 7/8 in. (22.9 × 18.3 × 2.2 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the S. I. Morris Photography Endowment and The Bayou Bend Collection, funded by The Brown Foundation, Inc. in memory of Michael K. Brown

Object number2015.405

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionRecognized in their own day as America’s premier daguerreotypists, Southworth and Hawes catered to a wealthy Boston clientele and notable visitors to the city during the 1850s. The studio’s portrait daguerreotypes—one-of-a-kind photographs on silver-plated sheets of copper—were admired for their extraordinary detail and subtle lighting effects, combined with studio props that were traditional signifiers of status, here the finely carved armchair and classical column.
Provenance[…]; Estate, New York; Private collection, New York; [Helder Costa, Arlington, Massachusetts, 1987]; purchased by MFAH, 2015.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Label inscribed in ink on verso case:
Martha Ripley who / married Truman Hawley / Harriet Tobey who married Truman Ripley Hawley - / Martha was mother-in-law / of Harriet

Two intaglio markings on the plate, a semi-oval shaped hallmark indicating the plate maker's mark: CHRISTOFL and to the left of the hallmark; CHRISTOFL printed again.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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