Rare Four Image Large Plate Antique Tintype of Baby autumn Carved into the left side

Carved into the left side of the front with thumb hole at top is LMR 1897

Signed Acoma N

with a bit of collage on top

And I like that the inlay pattern on this one is not exactly regular or predictable--perfectly imperfect

The three green posts look rather like pencils

Rare Four Image Large Plate Antique Tintype of Baby autumn Carved into the left sideI'm not at all a photography expert, and even less expert on early photographic processes, but I would guess this antique tintype was most likely made with a four lens camera, which came into use for studio portrait photography in the 1860s or so. The only challenge to this theory is that I believe those "Bon Ton" cameras produced four simultaneous images using only one shot, and here each image of this baby appears slightly different, as if an