CameraWorth.com

Lerebours Daguerreotype

The Lerebours Daguerreotype is a 19th-century wooden plate camera made for the daguerreotype process, the first commercially successful photographic system introduced in 1839. Lerebours, a Paris optician and instrument maker, was among the early producers supplying daguerreotype apparatus during the format's brief commercial peak in the 1840s and 1850s.

With only two recorded UK auction hammer results — wholesale saleroom prices that exclude buyer's and seller's commission — pricing data is thin: a 2004 sale at £1,200 and a more recent 2024 result of £353. As of today the small sample makes a reliable median impossible to quote, and what an individual Lerebours daguerreotype is worth at auction depends heavily on completeness, provenance, condition of the wooden body and brass fittings, and whether the original optics are present. Exceptional, fully documented examples have historically sold for far more than utilitarian or incomplete bodies.

Sales History

Prices shown are UK auction hammer results — the wholesale level achieved in the saleroom. Neither buyer’s nor seller’s commission is included. Dealer and retail asking prices are typically higher.

Date Price Source
Oct 2024 £353 Chiswick Auctions
Nov 2004 EUR 1,200 Leitz Auction