The present lot, a striking hand tinted daguerreotype of a portrait of a young, dying insurgent from the 1848 Paris Revolution, was exhibited at the Musée Carnavalet in 1989 for their landmark show “Paris et le Daguerréotype,” in 1989. In a letter to the Maillet's, Bernard de Montgolfier, the museum’s Inspecter General at the time, requested their “exceptional item” as a loan to the exhibition:

“The Musée Carnavalet is, as you know, organizing a major exhibition on “Paris and the daguerréotype”. There will be more than a hundred pieces coming from different countries (U.S.A., Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France…) and from private and public collections (William Schaeffer, Andre Jammes, Comte Geoffroy de Beauffort) [...] The Bibliotheque Nationale will lend us the portrait of a young man holding a flag of the 1848 French Revolution. Your dead revolutionary would put the emphasis on this very dramatic period of our history, if you agree to lend this extraordinary piece that you so kindly showed to Francoise Reynaud when she visited you in New York last year [...] I do hope that you will agree such a loan because your daguerreotype is indeed a very exceptional item.”

The work is in its original frame and backing.