Lot 361 email save

Terrific Half Plate Ambrotype of a Union Captain,

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Terrific Half Plate Ambrotype of a Union Captain, unidentified, having numeral "80" within infantry horn on kepi. A superb portrait of a genial bearded officer with his sword, belt, rig, sash, and forage cap piled on the nearby stand. The frock coat and trousers are delicately tinted blue with liberal gilding applied to eagle buttons and straps. The composition captures the mid-Victorian feel of ostentatious clutter emphasized by the massive hanging drapery tassels that appear three-dimensional in the foreground.
The plate is razor sharp and visually pleasing with scattered areas of lost emulsion that are not really noticeable until the image is studied for a time. The emulsion appears to be stable, though bubbling in spots, still VG+. Housed in a split composition case.

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