Sixth Plate

THOSE WERE STRAIGHT PINS . . . Attached to the gentleman’s jacket sleeve just above the reveal of his knobby hand that was perfectly positioned inside the curve of the oval brass frame, which encircled his excellent resealed sixth plate portrait. I can rarely recall ever observing an elderly subject with more numerous creases and folds in his face. Those lines of age and toil traversed his countenance in every direction! Only those wire-rimmed spectacles were alien to the weathered leather flesh. In his opposite hand, which firmly wrapped around the head of a cane, his puckered skin was visible. That certainly was a fine smoothly polished beaver hat on his head. His clothing wasn?t dirty or worn but understandably his frame had shrunk somewhat leaving the garments loosely draped across his narrow body. This was a superlative image. Twin lines of oxidation both vertical and horizontal created a natural frame. The pale blue in his coat was a deficiency in the daguerreian?s chemistry. Illumination seemed to seep past the edge of the cloth behind the gent on the left near the opening. The complete leather case?s geometric theme was popular circa 1846-1848 at the time the subject was taken.