This photograph is significant because it is one of the few surviving ambrotypes with links to Australia. While millions of these ambrotype photographs were produced around the world and many thousands in Australia remarkably few have survived that can be linked to Australian society during the 1850s and 1860s. Although the sitter in the portrait is currently unidentified the museum recognises the importance of maintaining its collection of ambrotypes as examples of the fashion and early photographic processes in Australia in this period. This image is also of interest as lace details around the collar and the necklace have been hand-painted and the whole photograph inserted into a brooch. It is also hoped that research may at some future date identify the sitter in this photograph.

Geoff Barker, Curatorial, September 2009

In 1851 Frederick Scott Archer announced the discovery of a new photographic process that could adhere to glass. This was a major breakthrough in the story of photography for the process made clear highly detailed negatives form which multiple copies could be made.

The general public had become used to their photographic portraits being taken using a daguerreotype process which were displayed in a small glass fronted case. To compete with this trade a special kind of collodion process, known as the ambrotype was introduced. This was essentially the same as other collodion negatives except that once the exposure had been taken the emulsion on the glass was bleached to whiten it. When this bleached negative was placed in a case against a black background it formed a positive image which bore a remarkable resemblance to the daguerreotype except it had the added advantage of not being highly reflective.

Australia followed rather than set photographic trends but in the 1850s, the massive boom caused by the discovery of gold ensured it was very quick to take up new processes like the ambrotype. Over the 1850s the ambrotype replaced the daguerreotype as the preferred method of taking portraits but even in the late 1850s daguerreotypes were still being made for more conservative customers.

Geoff Barker, Curatorial, September 2009

References
J. Cato, The Story of the Camera in Australia, Third Edition, Institute of Australian Photography, Hong Kong, 1979
Michel Frizot, A New History of Photography, Amilcare Pizzi, Milan, 1998
Helmut and Alison Gernsheim, A Concise History of Photography, Thames and Hudson, Germany, 1965
A. Davies and P. Stanbury, 1985, The Mechanical Eye in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne

From the collection of Albert James Perier, photographer

Brooch containing photographic positive studio portrait, painted ambrotype of a woman, collodion / paint / glass / wood / paper / metal / velvet, photographer unknown, 1855-1865

An ambrotype showing a portrait of an older woman photographed in a studio setting. The woman wears a dress with a lace collar and chains around her neck. She has the right side of the her body angled towards the camera. The ambrotype has been hand tinted with the woman's collar in white and the chains are her neck in gold. The ambrotype is enclosed in an oval metal frame with a glass cover. There is a metal clasp pin fixed to the back of the frame.

Made: 1855 - 1865

H5249-16

1855 - 1865

46 mm

10 mm