An early French quarter plate daguerreotype, circa 1845, of a stern man in a dark cap and high white neckcloth, posed with arms crossed before a hanging cloth backdrop. The plate is presented in the French manner, under glass in a paper passe-partout, within a gilt inner frame and a wide burl outer frame.

His head turns to the viewer’s left, brows drawn and mouth set, beneath a close-fitting dark cap. A white neckcloth is wound high under the chin and falls in a point over the chest, set off by a dark coat with full, gathered sleeve heads. His forearms fold across the waist, one hand resting on the opposite sleeve. The backdrop hangs in soft vertical folds, and the whites carry a blue cast.

A plain cloth backdrop and blue-toned whites are often seen on daguerreotypes of the 1840s, the first decade of the process, and the gathered sleeve heads and high neckcloth agree with that date. The passe-partout has a clipped-corner opening with a dark bevel and a single ruled line.