D00-113. MAINE SAILOR. According to the dealer I recently purchased this fine sixth plate daguerreotype from, he bought this young maritime fellow from a house in Boothbay Harbor. The unknown maker might have been attempting to mimic the great Boston shooters, Southworth & Hawes, by copying their "soft focus technique", because this fellow is definitely uniformly slightly unsharp. A more logical suggestion, since I can see that the edge of the chair on the left is crisp, might be that the dag man pre-focused his camera there and didn't consider that his depth of field wouldn't completely cover the sitter. Not knowing any better, the seafaring boy paid about $4 for his portrait, walked back to his house, gave it to ma and pa, gave ma a kiss and went out to ride the waves. There are a couple mold spiders and a decay speck (upper right corner) along with wayward tarnish on the resealed plate. The handsome boy's flesh tones are tinted and he rests in the bottom of a leather case. $425