Sixth-plate studio portrait daguerreotype. Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio, ca. early-to-mid 1850s. Housed in a full dark leatherette case; interior lid retains an embossed crimson velvet facing pad stamped in relief: "A.R. COLE / ARTIST / ZANESVILLE / OHIO".

An outstanding, seated occupational portrait capturing two tradesmen posed side-by-side displaying the tools and product of the butcher's trade. Both men wear work frocks buttoned up the front over their shirts. The partner on the left, sporting a chin beard, holds a cut of butchered meat in his right hand while brandishing a large upright meat cleaver in his left. The partner on the right, with full side whiskers, holds a butcher's knife crossed over a long handheld sharpening rod as if in the motion of setting an edge.

Alexander R. Cole was an active and prominent daguerreian artist in Zanesville, Ohio during the 1850s. Occupational cased images depicting tradesmen with the specialized implements of their manual profession represent one of the most vigorously pursued categories in early American photography.

[Daguerreotype, Sixth Plate, Occupational, Butcher, Meat Trade, Knife, Cleaver, Sharpening Steel, Honing Rod, Meat, Work Smock, A.R. Cole, Cole, Zanesville, Ohio, OH, Muskingum County, Embossed Pad, Cased Image, 1850s Photography, Antebellum Americana]

Very good condition. Strong focal clarity, depth, and contrast. The plate is remarkably clean, showing only faint scattered pinpoint specks and subtle peripheral tarnish.