I wonder if it is a daguerreotype, rather than albumen print.
Albumen print was invented 1850, yes, but most of the hard plate images, like daguerreotypes, tintypes and ambrotypes, were the ones being inset into those types of cases. Paper prints were often mounted on stiff card, such as cabinet cards, cart 'd visite, etc.
The silver tarnishing discoloration evident on the right occurred on daguerreotypes, too.
As to sharpness of image, - studio portraits, regardless of process used, tended to be in sharper focus, as the focal length, light conditions, exposure times based on those light conditions, subject being kept immobile, and darkroom developing processing were known factors any good likeness photographer had experimented with enough to know his craft.
The standing collar and cravat, and ubiquitous somber dark vest and waistcoat for a 'professional man' fit the era we've agreed as far as timeframe.
Yes, possible to be a paper albumen image stuck in a daguerreotype case, but short of carefully removing and checking the back, hard to say. Are those fly specks, or rust pinpricks? Is there a cover glass the image is behind, or the actual surface?
Regardless, it's a great image recording the dignity and status of the subject.
RCJ