I recently bought at a thrift shop a picture of beautiful Victorian
dancing
type women in a garden with a sea scape an a pond in the scenery as
well as a long gorgeous stairway. It is in what appears to be an
original wooden frame with nails holding in the back.  The words on
the back read  :
Sheffield (TM)  105-F   8" X 10" Roadside Dwellings by Spencer.    Can
you
give me any information on this piece of art before I disassemble it
and place it into a new frame, is worth any money and what year was it
made?

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Request for Question Clarification by grimace-ga on 28 Jun 2002 03:15 PDT

Are there indeed any 'roadside dwellings' in the picture? It's hard to
see how this title fits the picture you describe - could it already
have been reframed or remounted?

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Clarification of Question by karena33-ga on 28 Jun 2002 14:32 PDT

I think it could be a back from another picture????   Maybe they mean
dwellings   like to dwell on something?? Could that be possible?  
There aren't any traditional "dwellings" in the scene, just the
staircase leading to......?? Don't know?  Thanks for your help.

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Clarification of Question by karena33-ga on 28 Jun 2002 14:48 PDT

I also wanted to add that the description given that it is copper
plate covered with silver  is right on. It is also not smoothe.  It
has a lot of 3D qualities to it also.  The reflection makes the colors
seem to change somewhat. That is what it looks like to me.  However,
looking up the suggested sites on daguerreo...  they are actual photos
where this is some type of print or painting of the scene.  Thanks.

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Clarification of Question by karena33-ga on 05 Jul 2002 19:47 PDT

UPDATE::

I went ahead and took off the back.  It is two pictures in this frame.
 It is indeed a roadside dwellings scene on the printed back with
Sheffield  trademark.  Then the original pictur I was interested in
has no markings whatsever on its back.   Quite puzzling now that there
are 2 pictures.  The Sheffield has tiny print on the front stateing:
105F Spencer: Roadside Dwellings      Litho in USA   .     
Sooooo..... now we know there is actually a roadside dwellings scen,
but leaves  the  original one a mystery...  Thanks for all your help.
Karena

karena33--

Sounds like a lovely find...don't be too quick to take it apart!

The "Sheffield (TM)" sounds like it is made of Sheffield Plate, copper
plated with silver. The use of this medium would make this old photo a
"daguerreotype," named after the inventor of the process,
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre.  A daguerreotype is a one-of-a-kind,
"negative" image...things like buttons on a dress or text in the
picture would appear as in a mirror, they'd be "backward."

I would think a daguerreotype would be worth more than a tintype (also
called ferrotype).  They certainly cost more to produce, are visually
much more appealing than tintypes, are unique, are...well...works of
art in themselves!

Sorry I can't off-hand find anything more specific for you (such as
who was Spencer, the photograper I presume), but I hope it is a start!
I hope someone more knowing than I can take this a step further. Good
luck and I'll be checking back, hoping to see some more positive
answers.

Some links:
http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/1/1_early_photography_-_processes.htm
http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa030402a.htm
http://www.daguerre.org/home.html

Karena--

You wrote that "I also wanted to add that the description given that
it is copper plate covered with silver is right on. It is also not
smoothe.  It
has a lot of 3D qualities to it also.  The reflection makes the colors
seem to change somewhat. That is what it looks like to me."

That's a pretty good description of a daguerreotype!

All the best.