Sixth Plate

EASY TO EXPLAIN! When a daguerreotypist desired to make a landscape portrait, where the sitters were seated across the horizontal plane of his (in this instance) archivally sealed sixth plate, the actual camera would need to be turned on its side. Since this operator did not have more than rudimentary skills for his effort and his lens had an aberration in the center, the children’s mom was rendered very soft. “Mrs. Nelson” was penciled in the bottom of their leather case that has a strange old rather poor attempt at using a piece of leather for the spine. The vertical lines in the cloth were part of the backdrop. The subjects were seated very close since their head shadows (the illumination was from the left side of the room) are seen just behind the cute daughter and mom. The boy?s ?ghost? is part of the ample patina. There are also mold mites and pale brown dots scattered throughout.