Plate 100
That a thick thread, passing from the distaff to the woman's right
hand, is "seen only in" the Mellon copy (Census, p. 110)
does
not signify a variant state of the plate. In the color facsimile the orange
thread appears as an integral part of the plate. But in the original we can
see that the whole area was printed an even color and that the thread was
created, on this copy, by addition of a black wash (making a corridor of the
light brown print, for the thread) and reddish orange streaks.
