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Antique Photography Price Guide and glossary.
Glossary/Price Guide
Index

Depending on how one defines photography, the art survived for about 160 years. Now, with the exception of motion pictures, photography is gone, having been replaced by electronic, digital processes totally divorced from the nineteenth century science. Of the many millions of photographs made during those 160 years, most have been lost or destroyed, faded or discarded.Of the remaining fraction, some are important, interesting, artistic, archival or informative. Those are the photographs that people collect and display and the ones which are the subject of this short glossary and price guide.

After numerous fits and starts by many dozens of innovators at the beginning of the nineteenth century, photography was finally invented, discovered, created, or however you may care to describe it. Perhaps the inventor was Nicephore Niepce in 1826 or it may have been his partner and fellow Frenchman, Louis Daguerre in 1839. More likely, the English inventor, William Talbot devised photography sometime before 1835. Certainly Daguerre's system was the early success, but Talbot's negative/positive system is what panned out later on.

Usually 1839 is accepted as the date of the public birth of photography. That's when daguerreotypes were first demonstrated. Then sometime shortly before 2000, tiny digital light recorders wrote photography's obituary, pixel by pixel.

During the 160 years of photography there were millions of photographers mostly anonymous. Some few hundred of them made a mark for themselves. In this short glossary, I've listed a few of the more famous and/or collectible photographers along with a few other persons who were important in the world of photography. I've listed a few photographic processes, terms and materials. The list is hardly a scratch on the surface of the subject. It's offered only as a cursory introduction. If you have information which you think should be added, email it to me.

For some listings in this glossary I've included an estimate of the basic value of an example of the listed material. The valuation is only a guide, a starting point for evaluating a picture or piece of equipment. Good examples are worth more (often far more) while poor examples are worth less (often a lot less). With a few exceptions, I've focused on "antique" photography. By that I mean over 50 years old, or say before about 1950. Since real color photography was only devised in 1936, mostly I'm talking about black and white photography. Really, it's not black and white because early photographs had neither of those tones. It's more correct, perhaps, to call them monochrome.

It's wise to remember that as with anything else, the value of a photograph is the amount someone is willing to pay for it and someone else is willing to sell it for. I've been purposely conservative in my estimates of valuation. Please keep that fact in mind.

Now, one very important warning, keep all photographs out of sunlight. And, one friendly suggestion: proudly display and exhibit your old photos. They are as much art as the greatest paintings. They deserve the respect and pride of place of any piece of art.

Glossary/Price List Listings

D, E, F
P, Q, R, S		 G, H, I, J, K
T, U, V, W		 L, M, N, 0
X, Y, Z
Letter "A"

Letter "B"

Letter "C"

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Letter "D" Letter "E"

Letter "F"

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Letter "G"

Letter "H"

Letters"I, J, K"

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Letter "L"

Letter "M"

Letters "N, 0"

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Letter "P"

Letter "Q, R"

Letter "S"

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Letters "T, U, V"

Letter "W"

Letters "X, Y, Z"

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