Sixth Plate

ON THE TIE! His maker not only could place a lovely image on the finely prepared resealed sixth plate daguerreotype, he was quite capable of finishing the piece in an artist style. He used his pigments to accent the tiny flowers that were embroidered on the man’s necktie and then painted gold on that metallic chain. I have never seen a watch fob worn horizontally across a subject’s chest. What appeared to have been a gold nugget was attached at the bottom of the vertical portion of the jewelry. Naturally, I wonder if this fellow had been to California, struck it rich and decided to have a formal likeness taken in a studio that was equipped with a skylight? His bright forehead was contrasted against darker flesh tones. If he suffered the rigors of the gold fields, I suspect that his complexion would have been ruddy and that he probably wore a broad-brimmed hat much of the time. Those parallel lines on the right were part of the patina. The mark on his jacket sleeve was actually a piece of lint his maker didn’t see at the time of the sitting. Any other marks are superfluous. The sharpness of the gent’s countenance was extremely impressive! Bubbles in the silver on the left appear to be completely stable. The leather case has an old hinge repair.