[benjulmag]

Mark,

This appears to be an instance where we are going to agree to disagree.

To respond briefly to your revised analysis:

1. Comparison of ears from images 30 years apart means little. Ears change. An analogy would be analyzing handwriting; exemplars made years apart from the sample at issue have little value and are not used.

2. Your analysis of ear location is dependent on identical angles of the comparison faces, something that can be easily demonstrated when looking at yourself in the mirror and then noticing the changes in the separation between the eye and the ear as you change the tilt of your face. The face in your comparison image has a different tilt angle.

3. The distinctiveness of a shadow below the lower lip would depend in large measure on the light source used and its location, something we have no information about in any of these images.

I dated the Marshalltown tintype as c. 1870, because in it Anson seems more developed than in the albumen image dated c. 1868. The question rises, even if the images are from different years, whether there are any overlap of players, as one would reasonably expect at least a few. Logic would suggest starting one's search by focusing on the players sitting to Anson's right and left, as by their prominent positions in the front of the photo adjacent to Anson they would seem to be good candidates to be team veterans. The person on the front right in the tintype bears a strong resemblance to the person standing in the middle of the albumen image. Among its consistencies are a comparable tilting of the lips when the reverse image of the tintype is factored in.

I have long surmised that the bearded person in the c. 1868 image next to Anson is his father, who was known to be on the team. That person resembles the person at the top left in the tintype (next to "Anson's brother"). Because in one image he is bearded and in the other clean shaven, comparison is fraught with error. But the person does look older than the other players, and in each instance is standing next to a person who very well might be his son, as one would expect when father and son position for a group photo.

As I said in my earlier post, collecting is subjective, including one's comfort level. Based on all I know and have seen, my view as to whether Anson is depicted in the tintype is unchanged. That others may differ I totally respect.