PLATE: K

DESCRIPTION: Plate K depicts a man sitting indoors. There is no squint to his expression and the lens system projects adequate depth of field for a portrait (especially in comparison to plate J). The image is reversed left to right. The thick, rolled silver-plated copper plate measures about 2 x 2 3/8 inches (5 x 6 cm). The subject's eyes are open and clearly delineated with a bright spot of (mirror) reflected light in the corneas. This large, pupil-obliterating spot of light is found in other known portraits where the operator used an early system of mirror-reflected filtered sunlight as illumination (see early images from the Cornelius gallery of Philadelphia).[123] This plate appears to be slightly shorter than the other plates in the box. It was apparently cut out of the edge of a rolled silver-plated copper sheet rather than from the interior.


Ninth-plate daguerreotype Plate "K"
(Writer's collection.)

WRITTEN ON BACK: Nothing.

POSSIBLE LENS: Draper may have taken this image with at least a prototype of the lens he perfected for the operation of his spring 1840 gallery operated jointly with Professor Morse. Draper described the lens system as two bi-convex nonachromatic lenses set together, each lens of sixteen inches focal length (eight inches when set together) and four inches aperture. This image may represent an example of Draper's product before he switched to using a French achromatic lens. The system was apparently developed from his earlier fall 1839 experiments with one four inch aperture biconvex lens of fourteen inches focal length.

Draper's spring 1840 apparatus allowed him to take as advanced a portrait as anyone in the world. If plate K was made with such a lens, it pre-dated standardization of posing and background that apparently characterized Draper's gallery products after April 1840.

After viewing Wolcott's product in February 1840 Morse sought Draper's help in developing a lens system for practical commercial portraiture. Draper accomplished this challenge and from April through the summer of 1840 joined his artistic colleague in operation of a gallery on the university rooftop. Draper quit the venture after school reopened. Morse relocated the gallery to the top of his brother's newspaper building.
DRAPER QUOTATION:
The camera I have used, though much better ones might be constructed, has for its objective two double convex lenses, the united focus of which for parallel rays is only eight inches; they are four inches in diameter in the clear, and are mounted in a barrel, in front of which the aperture is narrowed down to 3 inches, after the manner of Daguerre's.[124]
HYPOTHESIS: This image is possibly an early nonachromatic lens example of the finished portrait technique John Draper developed for his spring 1840 gallery operation. Plate K possibly depicts Professor Martyn Paine, Dr. Draper's colleague at the University of the City of New York. There is some visual resemblance to later engravings of Paine.


PLATE: L

DESCRIPTION: A man sitting indoors. His eyes were open and clearly delineated with the same bright spot of (mirror) reflected light in the corneas. This large pupil-obliterating spot of light is found in other known portraits where the operator used an early system of mirror-reflected filtered sunlight as illumination (see early images from the Cornelius gallery of Philadelphia).[125] There is no squint to his expression and the lens system projects adequate depth of field for a portrait. The image is reversed left to right. The thick, rolled silver-plated copper plate measures about 2 x 2 7/16 inches (5 x 6.2 cm).

The subject's hands are folded in front with elbows resting upon arms of what is likely a Windsor chair. There are distinctive aspects of the gallery setting visible in the image--a rounded object (chair rail?) behind the sitter and what appears to be the edge of a window sill. The subject looks out a window or opening which admits much light.

This image was found beside the plate box but was not itself inside. It is mounted behind brass mat and glass in an early leather miniature case. The brass mat is stamped 1-GUY on the reverse.


Ninth-plate daguerreotype Plate "L"
(Writer's collection.)

WRITTEN ON BACK: Nothing.

POSSIBLE LENS: Plate L may represent an example of the finished portrait technique John William Draper developed for his spring 1840 gallery operated jointly with Professor Morse. It could represent one of two lens systems.

Draper described his first gallery lens system as two bi-convex nonachromatic lenses set together, each lens being of sixteen inches focal length (eight inches when set together) and four inches aperture. This system was apparently developed from his earlier fall 1839 experiments with one four inch aperture biconvex lens of fourteen inches focal length. Perfected by early spring 1840, this lens system allowed Draper to take as advanced a portrait as anyone in the world. Draper possibly produced the image on plate L using the same lens system as he used for plate K, but used improved techniques of posing, etc.

Alternately, Draper stated that gallery operations with Professor Morse were first conducted using his four-inch nonachromatic system but later utilized French achromatic lenses. Superior contrast and depth of field in the image on plate L when compared to the image on plate K suggest the possibility that Draper used a French achromatic lens to produce plate L.

The possibility that Draper used a French achromatic is lessened however, by information in Draper's letter to Sir John Herschel. Draper clearly described taking the daguerreotype of his sister with a nonachromatic lens system. Since the Dorothy Catherine Draper daguerreotype shows no inferiority to plate L, both may be products of Draper's nonachromatic lens system.
DRAPER QUOTATION: (highlights are mine)
The camera I have used, though much better ones might be constructed, has for its objective two double convex lenses, the united focus of which for parallel rays is only eight inches; they are four inches in diameter in the clear, and are mounted in a barrel, in front of which the aperture is narrowed down to 3 inches, after the manner of Daguerre's.
The chair in which the sitter is placed, has a staff at the back, terminating in an iron ring, that supports the head . . . By simply resting the back or side of the head against this ring, it may be kept sufficiently still to allow the minutest marks on the face to be copied. The hands should never rest upon the chest, for the motion of respiration disturbs them so much, as to bring them out of a thick and clumsy appearance, destroying also the representation of the veins on the back, which, if they are held motionless, are copied with surprising beauty. . . .
an arrangement in which the light is thrown upon the face at a small angle. . . . also allows us to get rid entirely of the shadow from the back-ground . . . the chair should be brought forward from the back-ground, from three to six feet. . . .
Those who undertake Daguerreotype portraitures, will of course arrange the back-grounds of their pictures according to their own tastes. When one that is quite uniform is desired, a blanket, or a cloth of a drab colour, properly suspended, will be found to answer very well. . . .
Different parts of the dress . . . require intervals, differing considerably, to be fairly copied; . . . Precautions of the same kind are necessary in ladies, dresses, which should not be selected of tints contrasting strongly. . . .
the whole art of taking daguerreotype miniatures, consists in directing an almost horizontal beam of light, through a blue coloured medium, upon the face of the sitter, who is retained in an unconstrained posture, by an appropriate but simple mechanism, at such a distance from the back-ground, or so arranged with respect to the camera, that his shadow shall not be copied as a part of his body; the aperture of the camera should be three and a half or four inches at least, indeed the larger the better, if the object be aplanatic. . . .
If two mirrors be made use of, the time actually occupied for the camera operation varies from forty seconds to two minutes, according to the intensity of the light. If only one mirror is employed, the time is about one-fourth shorter. In the direct sunshine, and out in the open air, the time varies from under half a minute. . . .
Miniatures procured in the manner here laid down, are in most cases striking likenesses, through not in all. They give of course all the individual peculiarities, a mole, a freckle, a wart. . . . The eye appears beautifully; the iris with sharpness, and the white dot of light upon it, with such strength and so much of reality and life, as to surprise those who have never before seen it. Many are persuaded, that the pencil of the painter has been secretly employed to give this finishing touch.[126]
Elsewhere, Draper wrote:
About this time I became acquainted with Prof. Morse and we subsequently had a building on the top of the University in which we took many portraits, at first with my four inch lens, and then with a French achromatic.[127]
HYPOTHESIS: This image is possibly an example of the finished portrait technique John William Draper developed for his spring 1840 gallery operation. There are presently two sources of evidence for this. Details of plate L fit Draper's description as quoted above, and so does the Doctor's famous portrait of his sister Dorothy Catherine Draper.

The Dorothy Catherine daguerreotype taken in spring or summer of 1840 shares several striking similarities to plate L. The arrangement of the folded hands held in front of the body is similar. Elbows in both images appear to rest upon the arms of what is likely a Windsor chair. The distinctively rounded object and window sill also appear to be aspects of the gallery setting visible in Dorothy Catherine's image.

Further evidence that both images perhaps represent standardized products of Morse and Draper's gallery comes from visual evidence within the portrait in the Draper collection at the Smithsonian Institution. This outdoor image was probably taken with a completely different lens system from either plate L or the Dorothy Catherine Draper daguerreotype. Nevertheless, strong similarities of technique are visible. Clasped hands are held away from the body ("The hands should never rest upon the chest, for the motion of respiration disturbs them."). Fully visible in the Smithsonian image is possibly the same chair or style of chair used to prop elbows in both plate L and the Dorothy Catherine photographs.

Extant images in other collections may come to light to further substantiate that these elements characterized a standardized product from Morse and Draper's spring 1840 gallery.

The subject depicted in plate L is currently unidentified. Since the image was the only one encased, it may depict the "collector" of the plate box images.


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LIKENESS
an essay on the SYNCHRONICITY
surrounding the plate box of early daguerreotypes

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