Sixth Plate

CHURCHILL SIGNED! Once you know where to look in the pair of sixth plate portraits that are retaped, it is easy to find the daguerreotypist’s name carefully inscribed along the bottom of the small book placed with a larger tome on top of that column. Renssleaer Churchill was an active daguerreian (and a prolific husband fathering seven children) from the beginning of his career at 271 Broadway in New York City in 1846 and continuing his excellence in Albany NY circa 1849-1859! His highly desirable dags have several distinct features. Churchill’s plate preparation on his body of work that I have seen has been uniformly wonderful. He managed to obtain fabulous contrast, remarkable reflected depth and broad tonality. He or an assistant were amazing colorists. Many of his pieces were signed somewhere in the silver. Father and son have all those attributes except for the tinting, although the lad still retains nice flesh tones. I had never seen Churchill’s signature in the same location as he did for these two likenesses. The boy’s silver has endless reflectance and a few faint gray spots. Dad’s surface has brown mold on the column and a cluster of green spots on the upper right side near the mat. There are other meaningless flecks and specks too. Both likenesses are kept in identical and complete leather cases. A Maiden Scattering Roses is the theme.