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Jay Dearborn Edwards Sold at Auction Prices

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Apr. 13, 2019
Jay Dearborn Edwards (American/New Hampshire)
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
Jay Dearborn Edwards (American/New Hampshire, 1831-1900, act. New Orleans, 1857-1862), "American Hook and Ladder Company No. 2, Girod St., between St. Charles and Carondelet Street", c. 1858, salted paper photo mounted on heavy paper, small paper label lower left on mount reads "VIEWS OF NEW ORLEANS No. 137, J.D. Edwards Gallery of Photographic Art, New Orleans, LA", small paper label on reverse promoting Edwards' business, image 5 3/4 in. x 8 in., mount 9 7/8 in. x 12 in
Neal Auction Company
May. 07, 2016
Jay Dearborn Edwards (American/New Hampshire)
Est: $3,000 - $5,000
Jay Dearborn Edwards (American/New Hampshire, 1831-1900, act. New Orleans, 1857-1862), "The Steamer Magnolia at the Port of New Orleans", c. 1857-1860, salted paper photoprint mounted on paper, signed in negative "Edwards, Photo." and inscribed "Opposite Post Office, Royal St. N.O." lower left, image 6 in. x 7 3/4 in., sheet 11 in. x 13 7/8 in., antique wood frame. Ill.: A Closer Look: The Antebellum Photographs of Jay Dearborn Edwards 1858-1861. New Orleans: The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2008, p. 25. Note: Jay Dearborn Edwards moved to New Orleans in 1857 and was working from a studio at 19 Royal Street by 1860. Edwards photographs from this era are the earliest surviving photographs printed on paper of New Orleans and depict a thriving port city. Cotton and sugar were the primary commodities fueling activity along New Orleans levees and driving business interests. The 1859-60 cotton harvest, the largest on record to date, produced 4.65 million bales, of which 2.25 million passed through the port of New Orleans. With few exceptions, Edwards photographs portrayed, directly or indirectly, some aspect of this commerce. Steam power, a defining technology of the Industrial Revolution was another key subject for Edwards. In the salted paper photoprint offered here, Edwards captures a view of the port of New Orleans along the Mississippi River levee. There are two steamboats, one of which is the Magnolia, loaded with bales of cotton and men standing on the upper deck and planks leading to the wooden wharf. The name of the other boat is not visible, but it has signs indicating it is an express for Memphis, Louisville, and Cincinnati. The wharf is stacked with numerous cotton bales, as well as barrels. On October 20, 1859, under the heading River Intelligence, the New Orleans Daily Crescent noted that the packet Magnolia had arrived in port with 5,383 cotton bales on board, more than any boat had carried that season. Given the vast discrepancies in the size of individual bales at the time, the Magnolia could have been carrying anywhere from two to four million pounds of cotton. Printing on paper allowed Edwards to create images that were larger than even rare full-plate daguerreotypes. His view of New Orleans combined with his remarkable technical skill in the still new field of photography offers a remarkable compendium of construction, shipping, and business activity. Edwards captured the full sense of the nations third-largest port at the height of the antebellum period. Edwards fled New Orleans in the spring of 1862 when his photographs of Union activities and forts along the coast implicated him as a Confederate spy. Following his service to the Confederacy as a mail carrier in Virginia, Edwards settled his family there until 1886, when they moved to Georgia and opened a photography studio near the historic Atlanta center of Five Points. Ref.: Lewis, Richard Anthony. "Jay Dearborn Edwards." KnowLA Encyclopedia of Louisiana. Sept. 12, 2012. http://www.knowla.org/entry/1160. Accessed Mar. 28, 2016. A Closer Look: The Antebellum Photographs of Jay Dearborn Edwards 1858-1861. New Orleans: The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2008.
Neal Auction Company

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