Dickens' Wife Found

Here is another of those lost-and-found items. It was found in an antiques shop in 1996 and comes up for auction at Bonhams in London on 17 May with an estimated value of £8,000 to £12,000. It isn't artistic, but is of significant historical interest. It's a daguerreotype portrait of Catherine Dickens, the wife of Charles Dickens. It was taken between 1852-55 by early British photographer John Jabez Edwin Mayall (1810-1901) and is thought to have belonged to the couple's eldest daughter Mary, known as Mamie. Click the title link for more information.