Well-Taken Quarter Plate Dag of Young Boy

TAKE YOUR TIME! That will be my advice to the next keeper of the boy’s magnificent quarter plate that has a recent archival seal. Casey has made a new leather hinge for the leather case that has a sentiment on the bottom paper that probably can be deciphered, hence the lead in. Naturally, the little guy is worth more then my words could ever describe. Especially the different applied colors that strengthen and diminish depending on the angle of view. His maker used a heavy hand when he buffed the munchkin’s mirrored and highly reflective likeness. I doubt if anyone will ever really notice those uniform striations. If it weren’t for the daguerreian’s black belt cinched around his tiny subject’s waist, I know the boy would simply walk past the plane of the double elliptical brass mat and step through time here next to me. Curiously, the operator situated the kid with his heels against the cloth background that was tautly stretched across carpet or floorboards. Mother must have agonized during the selection process of the perfect outfit for her son. After coiling his blonde locks of cascading hair, she must have carefully dressed him. I think that lovely hat would have been placed in a box and carried to the studio; then placed on the lad’s head once the man went about aiming light on the cherub! I guess my final question is, Did that adorable child naturally place his arm on the tabletop and put his other hand deeply into his pocket on his own initiative? Or were precise instructions given? Regardless of any stage management . . . this portrait is sensational! Speckled oxidation follows the contours of that mat. There is the teeniest green speck in that white triangular area in the dark drop. The remainder of the flotsam and jetsam shouldn’t be of concern.