Anon. c.1840s

PORTRAIT OF AN INVENTOR c.1840s. Ninth plate Daguerreotype portrait, America(?)of a Gentlemen, smiling, possibly John Isaac Hawkins (1772-1855) holding what appears to be the Polygraph letter copying device, the worlds first autopen, famously championed by Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) third President of the United States, who called the Polygraph "the finest invention of the present age" in March of 1804.

The Daguerreotype is presented in fine condition, with a later fitted plain gilded oval Beard Patentee stamped mount, in a maroon Morroco Wharton style leather clamshell case, with a single lower hinge (case size, 80 x 60mm)

Reference:

Bedini, Silvio A. Thomas Jefferson and His Copying Machines. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1984.

https://www.amphilsoc.org/item-detail/portable-polygraph-owned-thomas-jefferson

https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/polygraph#:~:text=Jefferson%20first%20acquired%20the%20letter,for%20reducing%20and%20enlarging%20drawings.