August Kampf Court Photographer Aachen: Bearded Gentleman (Vintage CDV ~1870s/1880s)

original vintage carte de visite (cdv) photo - no reprint!  

carte de visite photos were first introduced in 1854 and were replaced by the larger cabinet cards, in the early 1870s...

antique carte de visite (cdv) photograph, taken by aug kampf, photographisches atelier, 27 comphausbadstrasse, aachen, germany.

kampf styled himself as court photographer to his majesty the emperor of germany and king of prussia, and the reverse of the card bears the imperial german eagle (reichsadler) along with his studio name and address.

this dates the piece to the 1870s, most likely between 1871 and 1877, since kampf moved his studio to theaterstrasse 3 in 1877 and the reichsadler mark only came into use after the founding of the german empire in 1871.

the photograph shows a middle aged bearded gentleman with round wire frame glasses, dark suit jacket, and a wide bow tie, posed in classic studio portrait style against a plain painted backdrop. sitter is unidentified.

albumen print mounted on period card stock in the standard cdv format, with a fine double line border printed around the image.

everse features an attractive art nouveau style geometric border design surrounding the imperial eagle and studio details.

overall condition is good for its age, with some light surface spotting and minor corner wear consistent with albumen prints of this period, image is clear and well defined.

aug kampf was a notable aachen based photographer and painter, later father to the painters arthur kampf and eugen kampf of the dusseldorf school.

a good piece for collectors of german imperial era photography, studio history, or aachen local history.

condition: very good...please also refer to scan which show complete front and reverse of photo.

fotografie, photograph, photographe, kabinettformat, cabinet photo, foto, kabinett photo, cdv, carde de visite, albumen silver print, tirage albuminé, kid, victorian era, portrait