This antique gold filled locket is designed with the appearance of a traditional pocket watch and containing three daguerreotype portraits of the Flaggs, a 19th century family who resided in Racine, Wisconsin.
Upon opening the locket, three small daguerreotype portraits are revealed, neatly displayed behind beveled glass. The images date to circa mid-to-late 1850’s and picture the mother and daughter, accompanied by a singular portrait of the husband/father. When the father’s portrait is rotated, it swivels to reveal a character portrait of the little girl’s grandfather.
The first daguerreotype features a colorized portrait of little Celia S. Flagg, age six (1851-1938) and her mother, Mary Price Flagg (b.1825). Celia wears a hat, long, intricate braids, and a necklace with a medallion, tinted red and gold.
The second daguerreotype image pictures little Celia’s father, Gustavus Carleton Flagg (1817-1862, born in Washington, Vermont). Flagg wears a suit and a heavy beard; he married Mary Price in 1841.
The third photo has a pronounced mirrored appearance, and is of Ellis Price, the little girl’s grandfather from Denbigh, Wales, UK or nearby. Photographed as an old man, Price wears delicate spectacles, a suit, and holds a cigarette between his lips.
The photo-watch is engraved on the front cover: “EP to MJR”, and was given as a gift from Ellis Price to Margarina Jane Richards (1845-1896), a cousin of Gustavus Carleton Flagg’s, sometime in the 1850’s or ’60s.
A wonderful Wisconsin genealogy find! A small circular paper with handwritten notes on the pictured people was found inside the locket. Locket measures approximately 1.75″ inches in diameter and functions well when the stem is depressed.
If you’re interested in selling antique daguerreotype or antique locket at auction with us, check out our consignment page for more information.
