D04-147. CATHERINE LESHER BAKER. Catherine sat for her sixth plate daguerreotype when she was 54 years old; according to the penciled inscription written in pencil on the red silk pad inside the detached cover of the common leather case. Her great granddaughter wrote accompanying information on a scrap of paper pinned to that pad and included the two generations in between. Catherine's image is as primitive as you can get. The backdrop is wrinkled, her hands are hugely distorted and she's not really in focus. Judging by her simple clothes and ragged hair, I think that an itinerant visited her small town (possibly Canterbury, NH, where the dag was purchased by another dealer) in the boonies of 19th century America took this image. There is a scattering of mold spiders on the plate, a thin scratch near her ear and some white tarnish in the top right. Also some thin random lines are visible at certain angles. $105