T. R. Williams
[Still Life with Guitar and Stereo Viewer]

[Still Life with Guitar and Stereo Viewer]

Public Domain

[Still Life with Guitar and Stereo Viewer]
ArtistEnglish, 1824–1871
CultureBritish
Titles
  • [Still Life with Guitar and Stereo Viewer]
Datec. 1850
PlaceEngland
MediumDaguerreotype, stereograph
DimensionsImage (Each): 2 11/16 × 2 3/16 in. (6.8 × 5.6 cm)
Overall: 3 1/4 × 6 7/8 in. (8.3 × 17.5 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Brown Foundation Accessions Endowment Fund, The Manfred Heiting Collection
Object number2004.791
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description


T. R. Williams was a gifted daguerreotypist who grew fascinated with the new science of stereography, a type of two-part imaging that unites separate pictures into a three-dimensional scene through a viewer, an example of which lies in front of the guitar in this still life. Williams operated several London studios focusing on stereo portraits, landscapes, and artistic compositions and entered into a contract with the London Stereoscopic Company to mass-produce his views. Whether as daguerreotypes or sturdier paper prints, his stereos delighted audiences with their incredible realism a century before 3-D movies.



Provenance[Christies, South Kensington, England]; purchased by Manfred Heiting; purchased by MFAH, 2004.
Exhibition History"Turning Light Into Silver", 19 February - 30 May 2005, Audrey Jones Beck Building, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, lower level.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Printed in black on applied label, verso, center: WATKINS & HILL // Opticians // 5 Charing Cross [?] // LONDON

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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