Sixth Plate

ON THE REVERSE . . . Of the complete leather case this information was embossed inside a small leather circle: “Swift & Mahan 312 Market St. Philadelphia”. (See second scan). The firm was in business for one year in 1855. The team certainly were masterful operators and champions of the high art of daguerreotypy! I had only seen the case impression on several sixteenth plate examples that Casey has in his ginormous collection of miniature daguerreotypes. The gentleman?s stupendous resealed sixth plate portrait has depth so deep one might consider walking around the subject. And those applied colors, courtesy of Mr. Isenring?s patented invention, are still spectacularly vivid today! A Fuller Brush salesman might have inspected the subject?s beard in person and tried to ?buy a sample? of those coarse hairs. Could the man have been more handsome in life then his perfectly presented portrait on this shimmering silvered palette? The sharpness of focus made him appear incredibly life-like. He was certainly a fellow accustomed to the finest things that life had to offer. That was a wondrous neatly knotted bowtie over topping a crisply starched white shirt and collar. While the pattern on his silk vest was understated I bet the actual colors were wicked bright and impressive. That was a diamond set in a small piece of jewelry. His jacket with the wide velvet collar suggested his aristocratic background. Folks, this likeness is simply masterful. Teeny mat marks are on the bottom. The patina adds beauty to the applied colors.