SOLID! The subject had a broad chest and a wonderfully chiseled face crowned overhead by a dark thatch of thick hair. Magnificent light lit his countenance with such a degree of brilliance that he almost still seemed alive when I opened his sixth sized leather case. The properly conserved portrait revealed faint patina and a nearly unmarked mirrored plane that had superb contrast and deep depth. In fact, the chap sparkles. That is daguerreian frosting in the blackest regions of the piece. Feathery thin marks on his left lapel seem as though they happened the day he sat in front of the camera circa 1850.