![DARWIN, Charles (1809-1882). Carte-de-visite photograph signed ("Ch. Darwin"), inscribed on verso to "Mr Meehan from Charles Darwin," by Eliot & Fry, Baker Street, London (imprint in lower portion of mount, backstamp on verso), n.p., n.d. [circa 1872]. 4 x 2½ in., including mount. in fine condition. Signature on recto in area below image.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2007/NYR/2007_NYR_01938_1038_000(021357).jpg?w=1)
Details
DARWIN, Charles (1809-1882). Carte-de-visite photograph signed ("Ch. Darwin"), inscribed on verso to "Mr Meehan from Charles Darwin," by Eliot & Fry, Baker Street, London (imprint in lower portion of mount, backstamp on verso), n.p., n.d. [circa 1872]. 4 x 2½ in., including mount. in fine condition. Signature on recto in area below image.
INSCRIBED TO AN AMERICAN NATURALIST. A fine half-length portrait of the pensive elderly scientist, fully bearded, gazing intently to the side. The pose, and the pattern of his vest are very similar to those in several famous portraits by the great English photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. The carte is inscribed to Thomas Meehan (1826-1901) an English-born botanist, horticulturalist and author who emigrated to America in 1848, settling in the Philadelphia area as gardener and horticulturalist. He wrote works on American arborculture, edited Gardener's Monthly, and published the very exhaustive catalogue of Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States (1878-1880). Darwin was familiar with Meehan and his taxonomic works. In the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Meehan's work is mentioned in a number of places, as early as 1862, and the two men corresponded from 1871 to 1880. Meehan is cited in Darwin's Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (1868) especially Meehan's research into the differences between certain English and American trees.
RARE: only a handful of signed cartes-de-visite of Darwin exist, and no others are known to us with inscription to a fellow naturalist. One example, signed only, with the same Elliot and Fry imprint was sold at Christie's East, 14 May 1997, lot 56, $7,000), and another, signed only, was part of the Marans Collection (sale, Christie's, 17 April 1996, lot 39, $8,500). Provenance: Catherine Barnes, Philadelphia.
INSCRIBED TO AN AMERICAN NATURALIST. A fine half-length portrait of the pensive elderly scientist, fully bearded, gazing intently to the side. The pose, and the pattern of his vest are very similar to those in several famous portraits by the great English photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. The carte is inscribed to Thomas Meehan (1826-1901) an English-born botanist, horticulturalist and author who emigrated to America in 1848, settling in the Philadelphia area as gardener and horticulturalist. He wrote works on American arborculture, edited Gardener's Monthly, and published the very exhaustive catalogue of Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States (1878-1880). Darwin was familiar with Meehan and his taxonomic works. In the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Meehan's work is mentioned in a number of places, as early as 1862, and the two men corresponded from 1871 to 1880. Meehan is cited in Darwin's Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (1868) especially Meehan's research into the differences between certain English and American trees.
RARE: only a handful of signed cartes-de-visite of Darwin exist, and no others are known to us with inscription to a fellow naturalist. One example, signed only, with the same Elliot and Fry imprint was sold at Christie's East, 14 May 1997, lot 56, $7,000), and another, signed only, was part of the Marans Collection (sale, Christie's, 17 April 1996, lot 39, $8,500). Provenance: Catherine Barnes, Philadelphia.