RATHER SEVERE! Quarter Plate

If . . . this was an acceptable oil on canvas painting, copied onto this resealed quarter plate daguerreotype, we have to wonder if the subject actually approved of the original likeness or was she painted after death. I mean really readers; did this artistic rendering actually reproduce her appearance accurately? I had best end that skein of thought and say that the daguerreian tinted HIS likeness in an impressive style. Erin and I don’t have a clue about the surrounding background. Was something ?painted out before the dag was made? The oddness is not a defect in the dag. However, there is a curious aspect. Notice that brown splotch on granny’s cap. It appears to have been a bug carcass. AND when the mite was alive I think he left a trail across the surface of the silver beginning on the lady’s white pelerine. There are a few mold spiders and patina inside the brass mat. The leather case with a broken hinge is wider and slightly shorter than a routine quarter plate. The date was circa 1846.