The art of John Henry Brown

Magazine Antiques, Nov, 2004 by Anne Verplanck

(29) Ibid., February 25-27, 1861. For other references to his concern about the war and its effects on his business, see ibid., April 5 and July 8/9, 1861.

(30) Opalotypes are photographic images printed on a glass surface that is similar to opal glass; ivorytypes are photographic images on imitation ivory or glass with ivory-colored paper backing.

(31) Brown's entry into the firm required a commitment of $8,000. He borrowed the money from Dr. Washington Atlee, Mr. Norton (or Morton), Judge Lewis (probably his patron, Ellis Lewis), and Mr. Shaffner (Brown account book, 1864). On Wenderoth, Taylor, and Brown, see "F.A. Wenderoth," in Robert A. Sobieszek, Masterpieces of Photography: From the George Eastman House Collections (Abbeville Press, New York, 1985). See also Mary Panzer, "Merchant Capital: Advertising Photography in Philadelphia before the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," in Rochester Film and Photo Consortium, Ideas about Images: Essays on Film and Photography, Occasional Papers 4 (International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House Rochester, New York, 1990). Despite the fact that Brown advertised his ability to paint miniatures at Wenderoth, Taylor and Brown, no miniatures from this period are known (1033, box 21, Rhoads family papers, Quaker Collection, Haverford College Library, Haverford, Pennsylvania).

(32) Examples of Brown's opalotypes include: Woman of the Fisher (?) family (1858) and Fisher (?) family children (both in the Atwater Kent Museum, Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection), and six members of the Coles family (Winterthur Museum). The latter include Sally Coles (signed and dated "J. Henry Brown, 1879"); Edward Coles Sr. (Pl. XI); Edward Coles Jr. (1868); and Virginia Coles (c. 1871-1874). The only known price, $85, is less than Brown charged for a miniature in the 1850s. It may reflect the combination of relative cost and demand for opalotypes and the fact that the picture is a copy.

(33) On the roles of novelty and price in the demand for luxury goods, see Maxine Berg, "New Commodities, Luxuries, and Their Consumers in Eighteenth-century England," in Consumers and Luxury: Consumer Culture in Europe 1650-1850, ed. Maxine Berg and Helen Clifford (Manchester University Press, Manchester, England, 1999), pp. 77, 81-82.

(34) The firm of Taylor and Brown was dissolved in February 1876 (Wenderoth had been removed from the partnership in 1871), whereupon Brown participated in the revival of portrait miniatures (Brown account book, February 8, March 8, June 12, July, and September 1876; and undated clipping). However, an opalotype of Mrs. Edward Coles Sr. dated 1879 (see n. 32) documents that Brown continued to produce them as well.

(35) Brown account book, May 11, 1876.

ANNE VERPLANCK is the curator of prints and paintings at the Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Delaware.