Quarter Plate

A CLASSIC SHEW CASE! Could she have been a Boston Beauty when she visited an accomplished daguerreotypist circa 1845 to have her exquisite quarter plate portrait made? That drapery was either an attempt to create an artistic atmosphere or it was being used to mask something out of the top of the backdrop. The brown-eyed girl had an intelligent almost puckish appearance. She wore a daguerreian bracelet with a band of woven hair on her slender wrist. Elaborate handiwork by an accomplished seamstress created her lovely striped dress that was colored Robin’s egg blue at the conclusion of the resealed likeness. Because the main source of light was narrowly focused on the sitter, a natural vignetting of the fabric behind her occurred thus pushing her forward almost out of that small wooden chair and into the space where each admirer was located. The separated leather case had this information printed in black type inside: “From WM. SHEW’S Miniature Case Manufactory, Corner of Court and Howard Sts. BOSTON”. Mat scrapes and a few tiny specks, including two miniscule green dots are visible.