"Fascinating salesman's sample image ca. 1858. Numbered cards were placed under the chair before photographing which spell out "64-12" (or perhaps "64-1/2"). Because this collodion-era whole-plate image is currently housed with materials that seem quite recent, we are left with a question of whether it was originally produced for use in albumen printing (wet-plate collodion negative) or to view by itself against a dark ground (ambrotype). I have seen daguerreotypes produced in a very similar way (down to the small numbered cards in image) and in those cases there can be no question that the original itself was intended for use. Either albumen prints produced from a collodion negative, or similar plates used as ambrotypes, would have been a considerable savings in freight to the traveling salesman."
