Finely Dressed Woman with Guitar, Sixth Plate Dag

ELEGANT & ROUGH! The woman was taken late in the daguerreian era, after 1855 I would surmise. The conundrums are enticing. The subject wore her finest ensemble. She probably brought her classical parlor guitar to the operator’s location, which might have been “fleeting” since he didn’t even bother to lay down a carpet across those raw planks! The space was large enough to capture the lady full length on a shimmering silver surface that hasn’t been touched by the time passage. Excellent contrast and technical preparations helped insure stupendous holographic depth. Multiple light sources lit the lady very evenly. You might wonder why there is such a large soft area in the center of the likeness. The old joke is “his optics were ground down ends of Coke bottles”! Apparently, while the man was a wizard in all aspects of creating a lovely drawing on silver, his lens elements were not up to date. How strange. The focus was razor sharp! And wasn’t the use of the guitar and it’s placement rather odd also? I am trying to remember if or when I saw a similar arrangement. Finally, the fellow painted gold on his patron’s jewelry and rings. The daguerreotype is sixth plate size, with new glass and an archival seal. It is contained in a fine thermoplastic case.