An authentic late 19th-century Gilded Age New England Victorian carte de visite (CDV) featuring a vignette bust studio portrait of an unidentified young woman. She is beautifully captured in early 1880s style, wearing her hair arranged in a thick textured mass of short crimped frizzed ringlet bangs softly framing her forehead with the sides drawn back smoothly over her temples to fully expose her ears. She is dressed in an exceptionally tailored dark daytime dress bodice featuring a high neckline and a vertical front closure heavily highlighted by a dense central row of seven small, polished metallic ball buttons extending down the front of her torso. Her formal neckline is complete with a high standing collar band and a prominent, wide white starched eyelet lace ruffle cravat jabot bib cascading out beautifully over her front bodice chest.

The photograph is presented on its original premium heavy card stock mount featuring elegant gilded edges, a clean plain front face, and period-correct smoothly rounded corners. The reverse features a spectacular, beautifully preserved illustrative typographic engraving for Taylor & Preston, operating at 188 Essex Street in Salem, Massachusetts. This highly collectible backprint showcases a rare camera-in-sunburst motif depicting a detailed 19th-century studio bellows camera radiating a massive halo of sunburst light rays, nestled atop an ornate shield enclosing a stylized T. & P. initials monogram surrounded by flourishing scrolls and sweeping banners. Complete with a vintage period date mark of 1883, this prominent Essex County studio mark provides an outstanding centerpiece specimen for advanced collectors of early Massachusetts photography history.