Brothers with their Tin Horns Sixth Plate Dag

A very cosmopolitan resealed sixth plate likeness of two well posed brothers both holding shiny instruments. Although the older boy’s was barely visible since it was nearly unseen resting against his trousers in the lower left corner of their wonderful childhood remembrance. The younger lad was seated in a wooden child’s chair. His toy rested across the tops his hands that were placed on his lap. He tilted his head a bit to the right, smiled kind of sort of and warmed up to the maker more than his brother. Obviously he was okay with the experience while his sibling stood stiffly next to him and reluctantly placed his hand on his companion?s shoulder. His expression was that of a “doubting Thomas”. I wonder what the parents told their children when they were going to be daguerreotyped for the first time? Since this was an image made about 1848 and probably executed in a small town studio, the boys probably never had any prior experience quite like this. Both lads wore wonderful striped shirts with narrow, white turned down collars that were tucked into homespun pants with buttons across the front. The legs of the younger kid?s trousers were enormous and actually comical the way they had been folded. The plate exhibits heavy buff marks, minor tarnish inside the mat and a strange slash of oxidation near the mouthpiece of the instrument, where a hair had been lodged for approximately 169 years. Two areas of mold growth between their heads and a couple other spots are inconsequential. As are any teeny mat abrasions. The separated leather case has a floral motif on the cover and a woven pattern on the reverse.