A bearded police officer seated in three-quarter view anchors this sixth plate tintype, almost certainly produced in the 1860s given the Boston-school leather case style and the officer's period uniform. The image is housed in a gilt mat with an oval opening and a decorative engine-turned border, set within a leather case lined in crimson velvet and secured by a brass clasp.

The officer wears a single-breasted frock coat with a full run of uniform buttons down the front and a shield-form badge pinned to the left breast, consistent with mid-nineteenth-century American municipal police dress. A heavy leather belt with a distinctive oval plate encircles his waist, and he sits cross-legged in a fringed parlor chair with one hand resting on his knee and the other relaxed at his side. His expression is steady and direct, and he wears a full mustache and chin beard fashionable in the period.

Boston adopted a formal uniformed police force in 1854, and the badge and frock coat visible here align with department dress from the late 1850s through the Civil War era. The so-called Boston-school case, distinguished by its flat black leather exterior with grained texture and generous velvet pad opposite the image, was produced by several Boston-area case manufacturers during this period and lends regional specificity to the lot.

No photographer's imprint is visible on the case interior or mat. The case exterior is plain black leather with no tooling or embossing.

From the collection of James Lee Soffer