The perfect detail of daguerreotypy, the verisimilitude of subtle
hand-coloring, and the three-dimensional illusion and indetermi­nate scale of
stereographs (when seen in a special viewer) proved an irresistible combination
to the makers and consumers of erotic art. Today, one can only guess whether
this fine example was made as a work of art in its own right, as an artist’s
study, or as erotica.