Sixth-plate portrait daguerreotype. N.p., ca. mid-1850s. Housed in a full embossed brown leatherette case with floral bouquet and scroll motifs.

A poignant and emotionally resonant antebellum domestic portrait capturing a mother cradling her sleeping infant. Posed half-length facing the camera with a stark, unsmiling expression, the mother wears a dark day dress accented by a narrow white lace collar and a minute red-and-gold brooch painted at the throat. Cradled securely across her chest and arms, the young child rests with closed eyes and tilted head, swaddled in a gown or blanket boldly hand-tinted in vibrant cobalt blue.

[Daguerreotype, Sixth Plate, Mother and Child, Sleeping Baby, Post-Mortem Interest, Memorial, Blue Tinted, Hand-Colored, Hand-Tinted, Cased Image, 19th Century Photography, Antebellum Portraiture, Vernacular Photography]

Very good condition overall. The plate retains sharp focal clarity and smooth tones. Striking, vivid electric-blue peripheral tarnish frames the arched boundary of the mat.