Sixth Plate

ALWAYS A FIRST TIME! Surely Casey and I have examined as many naked plate dags as anyone else! We had never seen applied bubbles of silver, especially noticeable on the chap’s bowtie and also on a pinky ring mostly hidden from view by that scallop shaped brass mat used as an embellishment. The dapper dandy sat in a makeshift studio and rested his arm on a small table that was covered with a piece of fabric. That shiny cloth hung behind the subject had been folded and reused on countless occasions. The operator might have been in a hurry and didn?t even care about the crinkled lines on the right side. Or maybe he thought they provided the eventual viewers of his resealed sixth plate more of an artistic expression. Being taken “in the field? so to speak didn?t permit the man to get his chemistry exactly correct. He managed to solarize the lad?s magnificent patterned vest and his white shirt, plus the small handkerchief that was stuffed in an outer pocket of that suit coat. A large window on the left permitted illumination to broadly bathe the fellow and a ginormous reflector on the right perfectly balanced the light. The young gent?s striking bright blue eyes were arresting. He had a pleasant expression on his small mouth. Mr. Martin Kamer, my dearest friend and expert on 19th century fashion suggested that the wide swath of cloth banded around his impressive top hat was worn in mourning. He really was a raw-boned fellow whose clothing was out of character with his occupation I suspect. His hands were those of someone accustom to manual labor. Gosh, why couldn?t I have been there when he was taken circa 1852 to hear the banter exchanged between patron and maker! There are a few mat scrapes and a couple mold spiders on the wonderful plate. A complete leather case with an old leather hinge repair holds the daguerreotype.