Ninth-plate outdoor daguerreotype mounted within an uncommon stepped double-mat configuration: an oval brass inner mat surrounded by an elaborate sixth-plate brass mat featuring embossed scrolling cornucopias and acanthus flourishes, all bound within a heavy stamped foliate preserver. N.p., ca. mid-1850s. Housed in a full sixth-plate dark leatherette case.

A whimsical mid-1850s outdoor juvenile portrait capturing a young child mounted atop a folk-art rocking horse in an overgrown garden yard. Seated squarely in the saddle facing the camera, the child wears a dark jacket with white trim, light trousers, and a wide-brimmed straw summer hat. The mount itself is an exceptional piece of early American nursery folk art, a wooden "shoofly" rocking horse crafted with pierced, scroll-cut side rockers terminating in stylized swan-neck crests.

The exposure was captured in a domestic garden. Wildflowers and tall garden foliage surround the base of the rockers, while behind the child rises a classic white picket garden fence and dense shrubbery, illuminated by bright, diffused daylight.

Outdoor daguerreotypes of young children are extraordinarily difficult technical achievements due to the lengthy exposure times required in natural light, making spontaneous juvenile scenes outside the controlled studio environment quite scarce. To enhance its presentation, the smaller ninth-plate image was expertly stepped up into a larger sixth-plate case using a specialized dual-mat assembly, providing an ornate frame for the subject.

[Daguerreotype, Ninth Plate, Sixth Plate, Double Mat, Outdoor Photography, Child, Children, Folk Art, Toy, Rocking Horse, Shoofly, Swan Rocker, Straw Hat, Picket Fence, Garden, Dennis Waters Provenance, Cased Image, 1850s Photography, Antebellum Americana]

Very good condition. The daguerreotype exhibits clean contrast and clear focal detail. We note only very fine tarnish, primarily near the edges of the interior mat.