WHATEVER! I know that in later years this adorable little guy, with a slight attitude showing in his resealed sixth plate, cringed at the outfit his mother made him wear for what might have been his initial capture on silver. No one was better equipped in America than Charles Williamson, who operated his gallery on Fulton St. in Brooklyn NY, to take a tyke like this youngster and create a superb likeness that was embellished with an artistic rendering of applied pigments. I have waxed eloquently about the finished dags produced by Williamson and his brother. The richness of the tonality and the realistic colors could be equaled but never surpassed consistently by another daguerreotypist. Curiously, the studio used that bare tabletop for many of their portraits. Back to the tiny subject. How about his hairstyle? And those argyle socks almost hidden in the shadows that were tinted two tones of red. When the nearly mint leather case, embossed with a common theme is opened, make certain that the light is adequate. Don’t be afraid to angle the image and marvel at the changeable hues. Since the brothers used several layers of different paints there is a surreal quality and superlative holographic depth. A concentration of mold spiders is mostly along the bottom of the piece. Ancient patina surrounds the kid. There are several unobtrusive brown dots.
