Sixth Plate

WHOSE DAG? I can see a woman and an unidentifiable person in the image that the handsome pleasant young chap held in his large worn hands. Might it have been mother and father, who traveled with him to a far away place where he used their memento as a token of his love for them when he sat for his own freshly sealed sixth plate? That he would naturally have shipped back home to them. I am leaning towards his occupation, based on those buttons and his swarthy complexion. If his hair was cut shorter on the sides, it might have revealed at least one earring. Wonderful depth and precise focus permit us to see the lad with great clarity. That thick horizontal line was from a deep fold in the cloth background. The youth’s maker pricked his shirt and that pinky ring he wore. Oxidation has moved away from the inside of the elliptical mat, which was first used circa 1845. The Delicate Roses design on the intact leather case suggests his sparkling face was taken at least one year later.