Fałszywe dagerotypy Carla Friedricha Dammego z Gdańska
Falsifications of daguerreotypes by Carl Friedrich Damme of Gdańsk

Summary/Abstract: In the spring of 2010 and early 2011, two Polish libraries purchased 9 daguerreotype portraits which were purportedly the work of Damme (Figs. 11, 15-17). The punchmark “C. DAMME | DANZIG” appeared at the bottom of two of the plates, and the portraits were all mounted in cases, with the name of the daguerreotypist on a label at the base (Fig. 14), and in two of the cases, cards bearing hand-lettered inscriptions executed in ink were stuck on the inside on the tops. Unfortunately, however, they were not the work of Damme, but appropriately characterized anonymous American daguerreotypes, of which there are many on the Polish antiques market and which can be obtained at no great cost. What betrayed their falsity were the characteristic frames with the gold, metal mounts and their often fanciful contours as well as the inscriptions embossed on the plates. Damme did not have a punchmark of this type, he never marked his plates. Furthermore, the fact that the daguerreotype images lacked the round table with the two turned legs and painted background with a panorama of Gdańsk, which were characteristic traits of Damme’s atelier, also made their authenticity suspect (Figs. 9-10). A daguerreotype purportedly showing a likenesses of George Sand also appeared on the market, reputedly made by the best Polish daguerreotypist of the nineteenth century, Karol Beyer of Warsaw. Again it bore a punchmark on the plate and a card with an inscription and the irm’s label on the inside of the case (Fig. 19) and was copied onto the small carte de visite (cabinet card) format with a dry stamp in French (Fig. 18).

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