This comes from the collection of well-known Virginia collector and dealer Bill Turner. The subject is a young man, seated, resting one elbow on top of a book on the table next to him and hooking a thumb in his lapel. He wears a dark military jacket or coat with two brass buttons tinted gold on each cuff and six showing down the front, with two or three more likely concealed. He wears shoulder tabs from shoulder to the base of his collar with their edges gilded as well. The coat has high, untrimmed, standing collar. He seems to have combed his hair in the wind-blown fashion of some portraits of military notables of the early 1800s, as well as the sideways glance. In all likelihood he is member of one of the elite uniformed militia companies that sprang up as the secession crisis worsened and the dark uniform, certainly a dark blue, is in keeping with many of the Virginia prewar militia companies.

This is housed in a figural thermoplastic case with a basket of fruit as the central motif on the cover. The glass, mat and frame are in place. There is a Holmes, Booth and Hayden advertising liner in the back of the case. The pin is missing from one hinge, otherwise the case is very good. The photographer has lightly tinted his cheeks. The gold toning has softened. His hands seem a bit overexposed- perhaps he left on a pair of white gloves. Nevertheless, this is pretty forceful portrait dating to the beginning of the war or the years just preceding it.    [sr] [ph:m]

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