Note with packaging 'member of Houghton family?'

Portrait of two young girls, sisters in three quarter length. The eldest has a centre parting and ringlets and the younger has hair pulled back. They wear identical dark dresses with a white collar and cuffed sleeves emerging from the dress sleeves. The smaller leans an elbow on a table and both have an arm around each other.

Probably George Houghton who was partner to Claudet and founded Houghtons. Another view taken at the same sitting is number 28209. The pair may form a stereo pair for viewing in the Wheatstone stereo viewer. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Claudet (Houghton's partner) states, 'By 1842 he had made stereo daguerreotypes for Sir Charles Wheatstone.' It seems likely that the sitter for such experimental plates would be somebody who happened to be around at the time. The absence of a typical Claudet, Anglo-American style housing also points towards these plates being intended for the Wheatstone stereo viewer.

See also 28195

Stamped crest on front of case: BY APPOINTMENT MR. KILBURN 234 REGENT STREET. Lightly hand coloured. Decorative preserver present.