[Half-plate Ambrotype, title supplied]: "Appalachian Singers

Buffalo: W. C. North, 1859. Hardcover. Near Fine. Half plate ambrotype. Matted with preserver in original embossed leather case with purple velvet pad inside the front cover. Image size approximately 4.25" x 5.5". Professionally cleaned and resealed. A few spots of tarnish but otherwise clear and near fine. In a leather case stamped in gilt and blind with metal clasps. Spine of the case has been professionally rebacked and is a bit rubbed but very good. A portrait of four seated young women who are similarly, or perhaps uniformly, dressed in striped outfits, and a single standing young man with a suit with a vest which seems to similarly match the women's dresses. No obvious evidence of the identities of the five, but anecdotally we are told the old seal was labeled "Appalachian Singers", and the close-to-uniform outfits on the group suggests a group of performers.

Many individuals and groups of minstrels performed Appalachian music, but we have been unable to determine exactly who this group may have comprised, or whether they were just generically identified by a previous owner. Our date range is suggested by the mat, preserver, and case on the ambrotype. Appalachian music comprises many styles and sources, likely this group, whoever they may be, would have performed the traditional Anglo-Celtic ballads of the region, as opposed to the African-American influenced minstrel music that dominated the second half of the 19th Century. In any case, a pleasing and striking image.