NEW PRICING – Fine ¼ Plate Ruby Ambrotype of Two Virginia Confederate Officers from the Bill Turner Collection

NEW PRICING – Fine ¼ Plate Ruby Ambrotype of Two Virginia Confederate Officers from the Bill Turner Collection – This great image, directly from the renowned, Bill Turner collection (case still retains Bill’s inventory marking), is a ruby ambrotype, depicting two early war, Confederate officers or militiamen, in full uniform. The officer on the left side of the image, is wearing a nine button frock coat (buttons appear to be three-piece, staff officer buttons) trimmed with flat, gold bullion at the collar and on each cuff; interestingly, the cuff trim is V-shaped, oft-times associated with Petersburg, pre-war militia coats; on each shoulder is a bullion adorned, dress epaulette, perhaps indicative of him being the senior officer in the image. This officer’s pants exhibit a single, wide, gold stripe down each leg. His hat appears to be an officer’s Hardee style hat, complete with ostrich plume, gold hat cord and a rarely encountered, embroidered, Rifleman’s insignia. His belt is black leather and is joined by a two piece, tongue and wreath plate; he is cradling a pre-war, somewhat elaborate, officer’s militia sword, and he’s wearing tight fitting, leather gloves. The second officer, perhaps the junior officer, wears a similar style frock coat, also trimmed in the same manner and the same style buttons as the officer to his right; with his coat slightly open, one can see what may be a white vest, with one visible, gold military button discernible. His pants look to be the same as his compatriot to his right. This second officer is wearing a nicely appointed chausseur style, forage cap, with the gold letters “DG” on the front of the cap. His officer’s rank insignia is in the form of two rank or shoulder straps, affixed to each shoulder of his frock coat. We believe that the “DG” on the right officer’s cap is representative of the two men’s affiliation with either the Dinwiddie Guards or the Dixie Grays (Salem, Virginia); given the V-shaped, chevron like decorative elements on both frock coats, we tend to believe that the “DG” indicates that these two men were members of the Dinwiddie Guards. The overall image is quite striking, with really strong resolution. We firmly believe that these young officers are, without a doubt, from Virginia. There are some emulsion blemishes, but they are rather minor. There is a hairline crack in the plate, but it is barely discernible and is completely stable and does not impact the clarity of the image proper. The image is housed in a full, thermoplastic case that remains in fine condition, with a very small chip in one of the corners.