Sixth Plate

THE RISK FACTOR. A dealer friend of mine recently arrived at the barn with a box of daguerreotypes. As I began to examine them, I was struck by the fact that every one had filthy glass. This petite girl was no exception and in fact, her now newly sealed sixth plate was the final one I purchased because I just couldn’t be certain, even after studying her in excellent light and using a loupe attempting to determine the actual condition on the silver. I asked myself, how much detritus had leeched out of the old glass and couldn?t be removed from the surface. I did notice that the child was rather faint and I also wondered if she might have been copied from an original portrait on the same day. That seems to be the correct assumption. Blue tinting on the tablecloth and faint red rouge on the child?s cheeks are still visible. The surface has spots and dots. The leather case is apart.