Quarter Plate

WHEN CASEY . . . Handed me the separated leather case he smiled and I said, ?Let me guess son, some daguerreian in Philadelphia made a quarter plate masterpiece, right?? I removed the cover that had a raised bouquet of wild flowers surrounded by leafy filigree embossed in the leather and was immediately delighted to see these three intertwined young women looking out from their mirror directly at ME! While her companions? faces were marginally soft, the star of the composition sat in the center sat perfectly calm with her hands crossed one above the other waist high. Her gorgeous freckled face and intelligent brown eyes were sharply defined. All three posers were fashionably dressed when their daguerreotype was mostly likely taken in the studio of Samuel Broadbent. The painted backdrop with remnants of tinting strongly resembles the scene seen in so many of his elegant portraits. The excellence of the image was easily in his realm of skills too. Those two areas in the patina upper right look like wipes but they also could have been brush strokes when the painted pigments were applied. Most of the other specks and flecks were created because of the original moisture laden glass that Casey discarded when he made a new archival seal. The reverse of the case was imprinted with a fanciful geometric design.