Scarce Pannotype Photo on Leather of a Group of Buildings Florida 1860s Panotype

Description

Circa 1860s pannotype photo on leather of a group of buildings. Appears to be a copy image (a photo of a photo). Nineteenth century pannotype images are very rare and the ones that surface are almost always portraits. This outdoor image is particularly scarce. I do not know the actual location of the scene, but the person I acquired this from said it originated from an old Florida estate.
A pannotype was a rare wet plate collodian process on a sheet of black patent leather exposed in camera. Similar to an ambrotype (on glass) or later tintype (on metallic sheet), the patent leather strip was treated with a thin layer of collodian prior to positive exposure in camera. There were a handful of pioneers in this lost art, first invented by Wulff & Co. in Paris in 1853, which had the advantage of being easily carried in a pocket or elsewhere, but with the disadvantage that most examples disintegrated of faded away. An excellent online article on this extremely rare photographic process can be found at thediscoverblog.com/tag/panotype/.
* CONDITION: Good- overall with surface lines, grooves, and cracks as shown which are not unusual with this rare process.
* SIZE: Measures approximately 3 1/8 x 4 1/4 inches.