Portrait pendant

1840-1850

Measurements

2-1/4 x 1-3/8 in x 1/4 in

Materials

Gold, glass, daguerreotype, hair

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of Sara Corbit Reese Pryor

Accession Number

2004.19.8

Inscription

“D. C.” is engraved in an oval panel on the back.

Provenance

The pendant likely descended from Daniel Corbit to Daniel Wheeler Corbit to Sara Clark Corbit Curtis to Harriet Hurd Curtis to the donor.

Comments

This small gold pendant encases a daguerreotype portrait of a young woman.  The back of the case includes the initials D C engraved below a glass window behind which is a small lock of braided brown hair.  The initials are almost certainly those of Daniel Corbit (1796-1877).  The identity of the sitter is not documented, but circumstances suggest that it is likely Eliza Naudain (1810-1844), Daniel Corbit's first wife.  He married her in 1833, and she bore him five children before her untimely death at 31.  The oval pendant is a remembrance, incorporating her image and a lock of her hair.  

Other people in Daniel's life at the likely time this pendant was made include is mother, Mary Cowgill Corbit (1761-1845), who would have been in her eighties, and Daniel's second wife, Mary Corbit Wilson (1811-1880).  Images of Mary simply do not match that of the woman in the pendant.  For a daguerreotype of Mary Wilson Corbit and Mary Cowgill Corbit of c. 1853, see accession no. 1971.1007.