However, In 1856 Dickens declined Mayall's invitation for another sitting, saying that he had "so much to do and such a disinclination to multiply my 'counterfeit presentments'".

The daguerreotype (courtesy of Christie's Auction House, London)

This suggests that perhaps Dickens was unhappy about being photographed without his beard, or disliked being photographed in general.

Mayall was a photographer of some note, who patented a special technique for crayon-look daguerreotypes "for the production of imitation crayon drawings in or by the photographic process by the aid of a mechanical contrivance interposed between the object and the camera".

This achieved the appearance of vignette in portraits.

Official verification

A spokeswoman for Christie's said the photograph was discovered by consultant Lindsay Stewart as she went through the papers of the unnamed owner who died recently.

Ms Stewart said: "This historically important lot interestingly shows Dickens with significantly less facial hair than later pictures."

According to the Christie's website, the picture was officially verified by Andrew Xavier, the curator of Dickens House Museum, and Michael Slater, Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College, London.

Other lots included one of the earliest known photographs of a Japanese person taken in around 1851, while a volume of photographs by Man Ray with an additional signed pencil drawing by Jean Cocteau was also on sale.