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PROVO -- What could be a rare portrait of Joseph Smith has surfaced. One well-known collector is calling it a huge find and believes it to be authentic. The picture was hanging on the wall of a log cabin in Provo's Pioneer Village for decades.
No photograph of Joseph Smith, the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has ever surfaced. The picture is a photograph of a drawing or engraving, based on an original daguerreotype taken in 1843, supposedly of Joseph Smith.
The photo had been hanging on the wall inside this cabin in Provo's Pioneer Village for more than 50 years. The Sons of the Utah Pioneers were planning an auction when one member showed it to collector Brent Ashworth at B. Ashworth's Books, Manuscripts, Art and Collectibles.
"I thought, ‘Good grief! I've never seen that before,'" Ashworth said. "I've got the small one, you know. I figure in 48 years of collecting, I've seen about everything. But I'd never seen that."
Ashworth bought the photo for $2,000. He says he wouldn't have recognized the larger one if he hadn't had the smaller one for more than 20 years.
Early Utah photographer C.W. Carter created the image, probably in the 1880s. On the bottom, he says it is copied from the original in 1843.
"Certainly can't say it is Joseph Smith for sure, but it's intriguing that someone who lived during Joseph Smith's day, or at least right after, you know, believed that it was made from the original daguerreotype. So, that's kind of exciting," Ashworth said.
Ashworth has a copy of Joseph Smith's death mask and a print of a painting of Joseph Smith on horseback.
Last year, Arizona researcher Michael Tracy, claimed that a photo from an original daguerreotype in the archives of the Community of Christ Church is Joseph Smith. Leaders of that faith say they are not sure.
Latter-day Saint Church leaders urge caution with these findings, saying that since there is no proof they cannot say whether it is or it isn't.
Ashworth says he continues to search for the original daguerreotype or photograph of Joseph Smith. That, he says, would be quite the find.
E-mail: cmikita@ksl.com
