Early Photograph of Pres. John Quincy Adams Could Sell For $50,000 at Heritage Auctions

Dallas, Texas--A rare and unusual photo of one of the first U.S. presidents is expected to sell for $50,000 or more when an image of President John Quincy Adams taken in 1846  crosses the block in Heritage Auctions’ Dec. 2 Americana & Political Auction in Dallas, Texas.

“Quincy Adams was the first American president to be photographed,” Heritage Director of Americana Auctions Tom Slater said, “and this newly-discovered example is one of the earliest known presidential photographs.

The sixth-plate daguerreotype was taken at the Washington, D.C. Studio of John Plumbe Feb. 14, 1846, according to Adams’ diary entry. The location of this image was unknown until it was recently discovered in an antiques market in Paris.

Plumbe was one of the most prominent photographers of the day, and apparently had complete approval from Adams, who sat for him on four different occasions.

This image is housed in a case stamped on the brass mat with Plumbe’s name and lined with paper reading “Manufactured at the Plumbe National Daguerrian Depot/New York.” The image is accompanied by a detailed letter of authentication by William F. Stapp, who served as the Curator of Photographs at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery from 1976-91.

Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam and Hong Kong.

The Internet’s most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has over one million registered bidder-members, and searchable free archives of four million past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos.