19th-century portrait of African American woman

I started to call you, the female auction-house staffer told me as I stood there waiting for a bidder’s number. She had seen an African American-related item for sale that day and immediately thought of me.

That happens occasionally at auction houses where I’ve become a fixture. Staffers get to know not only what I buy but what everyone buys, and sometimes alert us to what’s new on the tables. That doesn’t happen often at this auction house; that’s why she was a little unsure about calling me.

If there’s something on the auction table that relates to African American history, I’m definitely interested in buying it if I can or at least taking a look at it. I told the woman to certainly contact me. We’re always ready to help you spend your money, another staffer said jokingly.

Thankfully, I didn’t get a call about a grouping that contained some scruffy much-handled early 20^th century books for children. The two books were about little black boys named Koko and Ezekiel, which contained some stereotypical illustrations and speech, but the worst was an 1894 picture puzzle that was horrid. I refuse to buy that kind of stuff.

What the auction-house staffer wanted me to see was a portrait of an African American woman in one of those early photo formats from the 19^th century. It looked like a tintype to me, but I later determined that it may actually be an ambrotype. Ambrotypes are processed on a glass plate and normally come in a hinged case. They are very fragile and may become opaque over the years, sometimes causing the image to disappear. They were mostly used from the 1850s to 1860s and sold from 25 cents to $2.50. Tintypes are made on a thin iron – not tin – sheet.

Neither ambrotypes nor tintypes of black people appears very often at auction. And when they do, I’m usually outbidded on them.

I found the ambrotype in one of the glasses cases at the front of the room at the auction house and knew it would be about three hours later before it was sold. I don’t hang around auctions that long anymore.

The ambrotype was in a leather case 2 3/8″ x 3″ in size, surrounded by a red and gold band and encased in a decorative brass frame. The front cover of the case was missing. The woman wore a crochet collar around her neck, and her hands were folded on her lap in a photo that seemed to have been shot in a studio. The photo had darkened with age.

There’s no way to know who this woman was or when the photo was done. Her photo and others like it show that African Americans also could afford to sit to have their picture taken. I’ve seen numerous photo formats featuring black people from the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. During a trip to Brimfield, MA, a few years ago, I picked up separate tintypes of an African American man and woman.

I wasn’t around when the ambrotype came up for sale, but I left an absentee bid. I wasn’t sure if I’d get it, but I did.