Oskar H. Fielitz (1819-1859)

Full plate daguerreotype. In its original mount and original frame. The reverse of the frame is dated and bears the names of the sitters in unknown hands.

Collection of the Reuter family, Braunschweig

Munich, Stadtmuseum, 1978, Königlich Bayrische Photographie 1838-1918, 1978.

Gebhardt, Heinz, Königlich Bayrische Photographie 1838-1918, Munich, Lanterna Magica, 1978, p. 145.

A new paper label is affixed to the reverse with information on the Reuter family. The plate was removed from the mount once to be photographed for publication by Gebhardt in 1978. In excellent condition. No superficial scratches, rubbing, oxidation, stains or dirt. One slightly brighter line in the upper right area, otherwise perfect. A piece of the frame is broken at the right edge, the frame very slightly worn.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This sumptuous daguerreotype shows Mrs. Sophie Reuter with four of her daughters. Mrs. Reuter was the wife of a notable of Braunschweig in Northern Germany. Friedrich Wilhem Reuter was owner of a tobacco factory, director of the city's water and gas supply companies and member of the State parliament.
Oskar Fielitz is known as one of the most skilled German daguerreotypists. He used whole plate sizes for his studio portraits. When his daguerreotypes were exhibited in the first German Industrial Exhibition in Munich in 1854, they caused a sensation and won the Gold Medal. Fielitz's speciality was to reduce the mirroring of the silver surface of the daguerreotype plate - an effect that viewers disliked very much at the time. The result of his technique was a bluish or 'graphite' surface with very neat and elegant rendering.