Sixth Plate

HIDING IN THE CORNER. If you look beyond that precocious child, identified as “Malvera Harriott”, on the left side of her “taken at home” retaped sixth plate daguerreotype you will notice a change in the fabric that covered Malvera’s unseen perch. Erin noted that mom’s face was partially visible while she stood close enough to grab her daughter if she decided to take flight forward. Let me try to dissect what I see. The little gal was handed a hammer and a jagged piece of wood to hold during her daguerreian ordeal. Both her body language and pained expression suggest that she was very uncomfortable posing for the camera operator who must have been her father. Notice those very bright spots of sunlight on the white socks and patterned dress. Malvera was placed as close to a window as possible so the largest amount of illumination could bathe her tiny body, hence shorting the exposure by a few seconds. Don’t bother checking to see if a Mr. Harriott was a daguerreotypist, I already did. On top of that tablecloth sat a large glass vase filled with spidery stems and behind it a fair sized wooden box. The lens elements were poorly polished thus causing that substantial soft spot. While there are mat abrasions and mold spiders on the silver nothing is really harmful. This is truly an experimental piece that was taken in 1848. Miss Harriott’s name and the date were written on a scrap of paper and glued to the spectacular red velvet pad embossed with a floral arrangement. Casey repaired the leather spine on a case with an arabesque design stamped in gold on the cover. The reverse theme is Edward White’s classic and in this example very rare sailboat with “Susan” stamped in the pennant.