Sixth Plate

LOOK CLOSELY AND WONDER WHY? Not only did their daguerreotypist use fancy pick work to embellish the women’s baubles, he also dotted the eyes of both the fuzzy dog on the left and the furry cat on the right! The younger person wore a black hat topped off by a flock of feathers. Her pale eyes revealed movement of her head during the exposure for their sixth plate image that has a very old layer of paper seals over the original ones that were broken. Her more mature companion angled her chin down and had a grumpy expression. Were they mother and daughter? The silver was previously cleaned many years ago by an unknown method. Some of the pop might have dissipated although the original exposure seems to have been a bit light when they were taken. Written under the dag in the leather case missing a cover was: “J. P. Leisenring operator June 7 Danville 1853 PA”. There are numerous mat scrapes and a couple additional scratches (on the glass) in the lower right corner.