Rests and Photographic Stands

[This post is a work in progress, to which I will be adding as I find more 1840s-1860s references to the practice of post mortem photography, and to the devices and techniques used to take good photographs of the living. Recommendations for sources and further reading are always welcome.]

Given the large number of photographic portraits arbitrarily called "post mortems" (mostly CDVs, in my experience, but also sometimes dags, ambros, and tintypes), I decided to see what I could find about the subject in period resources.  If a portrait of a person who is standing with eyes open and making hand gestures, is in fact a cunningly posed corpse with over-painting, then there should be some evidence of the method and devices employed.  I suspect, however, from my current reading, that most CDVs of life-like persons are, in fact, pictures of living people who used various stands, head-rests, and strategically placed furniture to hold a still pose that would look natural while photographing clearly.

Stands and Rests

"A head-rest is a very useful adjunct in portraiture, but if not a good one will most likely defeat its own end. The sitters head must never be fixed in this, but when all is arranged to the artists satisfaction it should be applied, and put so that instead of appearing to hold the head may support it and become as its name implies a "rest." Many persons object to the use of this instrument and declare that they can sit perfectly still without it, but this is not the case very few will be able to sit but a few seconds sufficiently steady for a photograph and by its constant use, many failures are sure to be avoided."
-A Guide to the Indian Photographer (1860)

"Of course great steadiness is required on the part of the sitter during the few seconds he submits to the operation of the photographer. It is usual to support the head by a rest fastened to the back of the seat as, shown in fig 82; but where the person can maintain a steady position without this the result is generally the most satisfactory, the rest not unfrequently giving an air of stiffness to the sitter. "
 -Photography (1853)

Head rest, to be fastened on a chair.
Page 302, Photography (1853).

"Head-rests are highly useful when properly managed; the most simple form of rest can be screwed on the back of a chair and easily adapted to the position of the sitter; it should be fastened without pushing the head forward, or otherwise giving the sitter an awkward and constrained appearance "
--The ABC of Photography

Unknown gentleman from Palmyra, NY.
CDV. Undated (1859 or later).
Hat held in one hand, the base of a stand is
visible behind the subject's foot.
Collection of E. Korsmo

Unknown girl c.1864-66.
Photographed by Brown: N.J. or P.A.
Posing stand visible behind her feet.
Collection of E. Korsmo.

Another unknown girl c.1864-66. 
Photographed by Brown: N.J. or P.A.
Posing stand visible behind her feet.
Collection of E. Korsmo.

Post mortem photography

I've found very few references to photographing corpses in the pre-1865 literature.  Those reference which are given are brusque and/or utilitarian, with no allusions to a brisk trade in lifelike posing or tips for how photographers should achieve such an effect.

"Mlle. Sarah, it appeared, on the death of her sister at Cannes, on the 3rd of January last, caused a photographer to take a likeness on her death-bed. He obtained one remarkable for its exactitude, but it was, as was said, "horrible to witness," inasmuch as it represented her features as they were contracted in the agony of death. As Mlle. Sarah's object in having the photograph taken was to preserve a memorial of the deceased for her family and a few friends, she saw that it would not be possible to offer them anything so disagreeable to look at, and she accordingly employed a photographer of Paris, named Ghemar, to soften it down."
--The National Magazine (1858)

"...They photograph infants and dead people..." The Journal and Transactions of the Photographic Society of Great Britain (1859) One entry of many, in a list of the many subjects and uses of photography.

The Photographic News (1860) recommends that photography be employed in medical training, to take images of patients and corpses.

" Dr. Roulston, of Leeds, recommends that immediately upon a dead body being found, two or more photographs should be taken so that a perfect facsimile of the features, both in full and profile, should remain for the inspection of those who have lost friends or relatives, and who would by this means frequently be relieved from a state of agonizing suspense, when the putrefaction of the corpse no longer permitted of recognition."
-Photographic Notes (1858)

The Photographic News (1859) has a first person account of a photographer attempting to record an execution in Algeria.

Colors

For a more thorough look at this topic, see Virginia Mescher's article about how different colors show up in period photography and the pitfalls of attempting to 'read' dress colors. [Scroll down to "The Mystery of Wet Plate Photography"].  Below are a few interesting quote I've come across on the subject. The light or washed-out appearance of the color blue appears to be responsible for those seemingly iris-less Victorian portraits.

The Photographic News opened its July 6, 1860 edition with an article about how colors resolve in different development chemicals.

Other sources warn about how different colors photograph, to allow for planning of the composition and exposure time: 

"...a light colour, in a photographic point of view, is not always what is commonly considered a light colour; yellow is light, but yellows scarcely have any effect on the most sensitive plate, and the result is black; reds are very nearly as dark; but blue, even when deep in tone produces an effect almost identical with white. It being understood that yellow and red draperies develop darker and blues lighter than they really are, and that these three colours are components of all other colours, it is then easy to judge the effect of any compound colour; for instance, light green and purple produce medium tints, unless the yellow in the former and the red in the latter be in excess, in which cases the results will be dark."
--The ABC of Photography

 "unless the picture is painted purposely we cannot realize its beauties, solely in consequence of certain colours, such as bright red, yellow and green, which act as lights in a picture, always appearing dark in a photograph, and blue, on the contrary, presenting a light appearance "
--Photographic Notes (1858)