Rare Cast-Iron Photographer's Head-Rest

Description:

Rare Cast-Iron Photographer's Head-Rest, Jenny Lind model, with cupped ear pieces adjusted by wingnuts, on extending fluted cast-iron column terminating in decorative flattened tripod foot, minimum ht. 38, maximum 69 in., in original green paint.

Note: Named after the popular singer brought to America from Sweden by P.T. Barnum, the Jenny Lind Head-Rest was the companion piece in the daguerreotypist's studio to the Jenny Lind Posing Table manufactured by W. & W.H. Lewis of New York. The head-rest, which retailed for $3 in 1852, was notoriously uncomfortable for the subject of the long exposures required in the dauerrian process, leading E.& H.T. Anthony to advertise Kenyon's Improved Head-Rest in their 1870 Bulletin (see Lot 363),claiming that their assembly had "more solidity and steadiness than those ordinarily furnished under the title Jenny Lind."

Estimate $1,000-1,500

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