"I've been used to seeing time-pieces treated with more politeness and esteem--except women's watches, of course, which by nature they abuse by cracking walnuts with 'em and having 'em taken showing in tintype pictures.'

How about a show of hands? how many of us have ever owned
a daguerrotype?

my ex'es grand father was a photographer-- his big old oak and brass camera that used glass plates in on permemnent loan to a friend who is a photographer-- (he repaid the loan by giving us new prints of all the old glass negitives)
many of the images were 'commerical post card images'--some from a sales brochure for a 'planned community'{Floral Park), some from a now defunct beach club in the south Bronx.
in addition, the family had a large collections of daguerrotypes, including some with 'tax stamps' on the back.

some restoration villiages will take a daguerrotype photos as fund raisers..so my image has also been recorded on a metal plate!

(you can also get images etched/developed on 14K gold lockets-- using a similar technique)