item details
NameCouple
ProductionUnknown; photography studio; 1850s
Classificationambrotypes, direct positives, studio portraits, double portraits
Materialssilver, collodion, sheet glass, photographic plates, paper, cloth, metal
Materials Summarycased ¼ plate ambrotype
Techniquesambrotype, wet collodion process, black-and-white photography
DimensionsClosed: 120mm (width), 96mm (height), 21mm (depth)
Registration NumberO.041106
Credit linePurchased 2014
Overview
This extract originally appeared in New Zealand Photography Collected: 175 Years of Photography in Aotearoa (Te Papa Press, 2025).
The ambrotype is essentially an underexposed glass negative with a black backing to make the image appear positive. Like the daguerreotype, it was a one-off, and usually came in a case. Both ambrotypes and daguerreotypes were sometimes coloured by hand: jewellery and buttons were touched up with gold paint, and pink added to the face and hands.