An unidentified woman fills the frame of this sixth plate daguerreotype, presented without a leather case and matted in a gilt frame with a rope-pattern inner border and an embossed foliate outer edge. The maker's name "Pratt" is stamped directly into the lower right corner of the gilt mat, an uncommon and distinctive form of attribution. The image dates most plausibly to the late 1840s or early 1850s based on the subject's hairstyle and dress.

The woman wears a dark striped dress with a wide, flat lace collar lying across her shoulders, and a small brooch at the center of the neckline. Her dark hair is center-parted and arranged in tight ringlet curls falling on either side of her face, with a lace or net hairpiece visible at the crown. Her expression is direct and composed, her gaze meeting the lens straight on.

Several American daguerreotypists carried the surname Pratt during the antebellum period, and the stamped mat attribution narrows the lot to a studio of some professional standing, as mat imprinting was not a universal practice and reflects deliberate marketing effort by the operator.

The photographer's name "Pratt" is stamped into the lower right corner of the gilt mat.

Property of a Palmer, Massachusetts gentleman.