[ Photographs ] (Cased Images) California Exceptional oversize quarter-plate outdoor daguerreotype, measuring 4.25 x 5.5inches, depicting a California frontier scene, with 29 men, women and children posed before a long plank roofed building upon

[ Photographs ] (Cased Images) California Exceptional oversize quarter-plate outdoor daguerreotype, measuring 4.25 x 5.5inches, depicting a California frontier scene, with 29 men, women and children posed before a long plank roofed building upon which are seated or standing 9 other men, and before which is a sluice like apparatus; in a leather case separated at the hinge. Early- mid 1850s E10000-15000 An Outstanding and Scarce Image, and One Which Is Problematical For, The Very Details Which Make It So Notable, purchased at the estate auction of De Vere E. West, near Carthage, Illinois. According to the photo-historian Peter Palmquist, a specialist in California imagery, the scene is of an area in the northern reaches of the state. Examples of frontier scenes which depict such a large number of people, and people of various sexes and ages, are extremely uncommon. Mining scenes, for example, almost exclusively depicted male figures since frontier operations were physically inhospitable locales for family life. The building which makes up the background of the daguerreotype poses another set Of questions. The structure is clearly strong and well-constructed (note the sawn-plank roof that is able to support nine men), as well as extremely large. The purpose of such a structure not a church or temporary shelter and possibly a communal hall-in a frontier settlement is more than a little mysterious. And, not least of all is the enigma of the apparatus in theforeground. While it resembles a sluice, there is no water emanating from the device, and no visible stream leading away from or to it. In conclusion, the type of trees, and wealth of wood (apparent in the size of the building) suggest a California locale: theforeground apparatus does resemble a mining device, and the scene is clearly a frontier one. Exactly where and why the image was taken, however, remains a mystery.