Sixth plate ambrotype portrait of the Rev. Dr. John Reid Omond (1804-1892), a Scottish minister of the Free Church of Scotland, in a full leather case.

The sitter is shown three-quarter length, seated sideways on a ladder-back chair with his head turned in profile to the left. He wears rimless pince-nez spectacles, and his dark hair is brushed across his forehead. He has full side whiskers and a heavy beard that leaves his upper lip clean-shaven. His double-breasted wool coat has broad lapels, and a white collar shows at the throat. One arm is draped over the chair back with the hand hanging loose. The other hand rests closed on his knee against a rough, mottled stone wall. The image is set in a gilt-tooled mat and preserver within a red velvet-lined case.

Born in Kirkwall, Orkney, Omond studied at the University of Edinburgh and trained as a Writer to the Signet before entering the Divinity Hall. He was ordained at Monzie, Perthshire, in 1836 and joined the Free Church at the Disruption of 1843. Hill and Adamson photographed him in the 1840s, and prints are held by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the National Galleries of Scotland. He died at Craigentor, Monzie, in 1892.

The case is dark brown morocco with a blind-stamped panel border and brass hook closures. Its inner lid is padded in red velvet embossed with a scrolling foliate urn design. There is no photographer’s imprint and no inscription naming the sitter. The identification of the sitter as Omond rests on attribution and is not recorded on the case. Sixth plate.