A carte
de visite was a small paper photograph mounted on light card
resembling a Victorian calling card in size and weight.
The style
was introduced in Paris in 1854 by Andre
Disderi (1819-1890).
The cards are about 2 1/2 inches by
4 inches with an image about 2 1/4 by 3 1/2 inches.
They were
printed on very light weight paper before being mounting.
They
were usually made in a camera with four lenses on
wet glass plates.
The cards very quickly
became popular.
By 1859 they were being widely exchanged and
collected often in elegant albums.
By 1862 they had become equally popular in America, especially
in Washington and New York and were almost universally traded
and collected.
By 1871, however, the craze had died.
Almost
no carte de visite date from after that time.
They were supplanted
by cabinet cards.
Estimated basic value: $115
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