Quarter Plate

GRADING A PAPER. The scholarly appearing fellow was seated after a fashion, as he would have been when he read through a discourse that had been assigned to a student. The professor held a small mechanical pencil used to make notations in his pupil?s notebook. You know folks, the subject and the daguerreian worked in perfect harmony to recreate a tableau that allowed the viewers who gazed upon the man?s quarter plate portrait displayed in a fine thermoplastic wall frame (see second image) to see the erudite gent as if they had entered his study to observe him concentrating on his work. Rarely are we presented with an archivally prepared likeness that projected such intimacy with the person?s vocation! I sat with a pen in hand and began to write on a scrap of paper. My head was at a similar angle. I wore reading glasses. The fellow?s beard was really low on his jawline and yes it and his hair were slightly darker then mine. Now I ask you, did the daguerreotypist use a reversing prism or did the man simply switch the pen to his left hand to replicate correctness in his portrait, if of course, he was right handed to begin with? While there are mat marks along the bottom and white dots difficult to see in the original, a couple black marks were created the day the chap was taken in the late 1840s. Because of the light and shade patches in the plain cloth background I wonder if it was on a disc and in motion? The focus and tonality are both superb!