Ambrotype, 1855, John Fred Garper / Collection of Jason WrightJason Wright may possess the oldest foxhunting photograph in existence.
A long time collector and researcher of early photography, Wright’s collection consists mainly of daguerreotypes covering the five-year period from 1839 (when the process was first introduced) to 1843. Wright discovered this photograph, an ambrotype, in a lot of early daguerreotypes that he purchased from a Scottish country house sale.
On the back of the framed photo appears the date 1855 and the name of the subject. The surname is somewhat difficult to make out, but the proud young man, booted and spurred, whip and cap in hand, would be John Fred Garper as best it can be deciphered. Wright claims to know all the major sources for daguerreotype and ambrotype (a later process) images and says he has never before come across an image of either process with English-style foxhunting subject matter.
Wright explains that the ambrotype process was invented in the early 1850s and was not prominent commercially until about 1854, making this 1855 example an early one. The daguerreotype, invented by Louis Daguerre and introduced in 1839, was the first widely know photographic process. The fragile image appeared on the surface of a silver-plated copper sheet and was sealed behind glass for protection. The process was widely used for twenty years until the less expensive and more easily viewed ambrotype replaced it. The ambrotype image appears on glass plate. In its turn, the ambrotype was superceded in the 1860s by the tintype, an image on iron sheet.
Collector Jason Wright is originally from San Francisco but currently lives in Yorkshire, England. He’s happy to keep the photograph in his collection, although, being an ambrotype, it is later than his main period of focus as a collector.
“If someone is really keen on it, I would consider a sale if it needs to be in a more foxhunting-centric collection,” he says.
The full description of the piece would be: 1855 (June) Quarter Plate Seated English Fox Hunter Ambrotype with Hunt Whip and Cap in Full Pinks.
Posted March 11, 2016
1855 (June) Quarter Plate Seated English Fox Hunter Ambrotype with Hunt Whip and Cap in Full Pinks.