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[Zachary Taylor]: First Lady Margaret Taylor Ambrotype....
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[Zachary Taylor]: First Lady Margaret Taylor Ambrotype. Tinted sixth plate ambrotype portrait of Margaret Mackall Smith "Peggy" Taylor (1788-1852), wife of Zachary Taylor and First Lady of the United States from 1849 to 1850. This particular image seems to have been the model for most depictions of her. For many years, the only known image of First Lady Margaret Taylor was an engraving issued by the U.S. Government in 1902. It was mistakenly believed that no photographs of her had survived. Heritage Auctions offered a ninth plate daguerreotype of the First Lady, a Taylor family heirloom, in November 2010, identifying it then as only one of two known photographs. This is the one loaned by her daughter, White House Hostess Betty Taylor Bliss Dandridge, to be used as the model for the engraving. The embossed copper preserver has a most unusual feature at the top center; namely, a crossed pair of American and British flags. The ambrotype process was invented by Englishmen Frederick Scott Archer and Peter Wickens Fry. The crossed flags may have some connection with these photography pioneers. While this image may, in fact, be a copy image of a previous daguerreotype, it may be a from-life image made in 1852 or before. We have seen a small broadside advertising an ambrotype gallery using woodcut portraits of William O. Butler and Millard Fillmore, both Vice Presidential candidates in the election of 1848. So, it is quite possible that this image was made during Peggy Taylor's lifetime. It was purchased from a Washington, D.C. dealer out of a larger collection of images of Mexican War military figures from Winchester, Virginia, the last place of Betty Taylor Bliss Dandridge's residency. Accompanied by a Ghana postage stamp and a modern collector's card using the photographic image of Mrs. Taylor. Lacks case.Auction Info
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