I hope you've had a chance to visit the separate pages on daguerreotypes and ambrotypes. Daguerreotypes preceded ambrotypes, which in turn preceded tintypes. On this page, I'll talk about tintypes, then spend a little time showing related items. I'll also share some thoughts on collecting.
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| Image is 5" width x 7" height |
This is a tintype of yours truly. Some years ago (we won't say how many), I was visiting my friend Joe in Detroit, and we spent a day touring Greenfield Village. Greenfield Village was the brainchild of Henry Ford, who bought buildings from around the country that were the last of their professional kind (such as a blacksmith's forge would be). He then reconstructed them in one location to form a unique old-time village. The photographer's studio there was a functioning place where one could pose in front of an antique camera and receive an authentic tintype.
I posed for an exposure of about one minute in studio attire. Unfortunately, the photographer had a table with props that were hopelessly hoaky – a bottle of whiskey, a deck of cards and a revolver. When I saw the finished product, I realized that I really needed to take control of the art direction, and I had a second tintype made without the table and its props. I was familiar with one of the last photographs taken of John Quincy Adams, which is shown below. So I posed as best I remembered it, with crossed legs and a folded kerchief. The result was so much better that the photographers didn't charge for the second image, and asked for a third sitting, for their own collection! Somewhere this blogger is a museum piece (though his friends would tell you that, anyway).
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| Image is 2" width x 2.5" height |
A boy only about 16 years old is already out on his own, working hard and not making much money. He saves up for this image, which he's thought about and wanted for a long time. His only clothes are what he works in, so when he arrives at the studio, the photographer suggests that he don a vest and coat for a more formal look. Despite the fact that the loaned garments are far too big, the young man takes the suggestion, even as I did, in the pose for my own tintype.
This image would not have come in a gutta percha case. It was probably originally in a leather case, or more likely, one covered with paper.
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| Image is 1.875" width x 2.375" height |
This lady is possibly wearing a large cameo of an angel. Her jewelry could also be a post-mortem image of a lost baby.
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| Image is 2" width x 2.5" height |
The inside has a particularly vibrant velvet, which is in especially good condition. The brass frame around the tintype would suggest that this is a later image, sometime after the Civil War.
I also like the energy of this young man — robust and can-do, but one probably wouldn't want to get in his way, either. I'm guessing that he went west.
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| Frame size is 1.375" width x 1.875" height |
I'm sure most people would look at this image and imagine that this boy was dressing up like a Civil War soldier, perhaps emulating an older brother who was fighting for the Union. It might surprise you to know that Civil War archives report that more than 100,000 Civil War soldiers were younger than 15.
I'm not showing a detail of this elegant image because the gutta percha opens no more than 65 degrees. A nice feature of this item is that the glass cover is convex, like that of a very nice watch case.
I've never seen another oreo that wasn't broken. They're terribly fragile because the covers were threaded, and had to be carefully unscrewed. This oreo is in pristine condition.
I've always thought that this gentleman could easily have been from the 1970s. He's probably from the 1870s instead.
One presentation of tintypes was in these decorative paper frames, which had the additional advantage of protecting the tintype's emulsion surface. The information on the back would indicate that the photographer used a camera with multiple lens.
One other advantage of these card presentations, at least for the collector, is that they're more likely to have identifying inscriptions. This is Mollie W. Wilson of Vassar College.
Today most tintypes are to be found without frames of any sort, like the one above (though there's a slight shadow on the image to indicate that it originally had a paper frame). There's a great paradox in collecting such antique images of children. On one hand, their whole future lies before them, and on the other hand, we know that they've already lived it and passed on.
There's also a great irony in such tintypes, and the irony is that they've survived more than a hundred years, only to be scratched up today! Most antique dealers don't really value tintypes, and so they pile them together in tight little boxes where equally clueless customers carelessly thumb through them. I fault dealers for this, because it would take very little to place tintypes in albums with protective plastic pockets.
Not every gutta percha case reveals a photograph. These fine miniatures are painted on ivory. The case came from S. Peck & Co., so perhaps we could trace this couple's hometown from that. I've always thought they were from New York or Boston.
This gutta percha is one of two that I've had re-gilded. It came empty, so I filled it with a paper photograph of a gentleman named John W. Means.
I came upon a grouping of photos of Mr. Means, who apparently spent his life in Ohio, and I found it interesting to see him age. Isn't the back of that last carte de visite wonderful?
I generally don't collect paper photographs, in large part because my focus has been on daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes. But nice examples of those three categories are getting a little harder to find, and sometimes I happen upon a truly stunning image, or one that's a little out of the ordinary.
This photograph is on a thin paper, and appears to be produced through a process akin to blueprints. The term for images like this is "cyanotype."
This may or may not have been my first daguerreotype, but I remember that the case was my first gutta percha. Fortunately for me, it was in excellent condition, and I therefore had, right from the beginning, a high standard for judging other purchases.
It's important in all the excitement of a new collection to maintain a degree of discernment. One wants to look for quality, and even then, it can be a good idea to map out some boundaries. In my case, I realized at some point that I was just as interested in good gutta percha cases as I was in daguerreotypes. So I decided to collect only mint or near-mint cases, and I further decided to concentrate on the ones that held images 2" x 2.5" (called "ninth plates"). For me, the smaller images and cases have always had a jewel-like quality. If you scroll back through these pages, you'll see that I've concentrated on quality, rather than quantity.
If you've read all of my narrative, you also know that I not only collect daguerreotypes and cases, but I collect people. I've imbued them with the personalities I imagine they had, and I've wondered about their lives. And so part of my collecting has been to choose the sort of lovely people I'd like to share time with. I've callously and unabashedly shunned homely images for prettier faces, and in doing that, I've matched nicer photos to nicer cases. Some dealers and collectors would call that "cannibalizing." There are some purists who think it's a very bad idea to switch images and cases to create a nicer pairing, and I understand their point of view. If the image is switched from case to case, the collector might lose some valuable information for tracking who the photographer was, or perhaps some information about the sitter. But the truth of the matter is that nowadays, most daguerreotypes are found without their cases, and many cases are sold empty.
When you look at a gutta percha case, you'll see that the clasp and the hinges are incised into the frame, meaning that areas of multiple wear and tension are thinner and more easily stressed. It's at these points that the cases might eventually crack and ultimately fall apart.
When buying a gutta percha case, look at the sides where the clasp and hinges are, and if they're without cracks, you've probably found a wonderful case. Happy hunting!
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| Image is 2" width x 2.5" height |
I'm not showing a detail of this elegant image because the gutta percha opens no more than 65 degrees. A nice feature of this item is that the glass cover is convex, like that of a very nice watch case.
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This delightful item is referred to by dealers, for obvious reasons, as an "oreo."
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| Image circumference is 1.125" |
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| Image is 1.6875" width x 2.125" height |
I've always thought that this gentleman could easily have been from the 1970s. He's probably from the 1870s instead.
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| Card size 2.375" width x 2.75" height |
One presentation of tintypes was in these decorative paper frames, which had the additional advantage of protecting the tintype's emulsion surface. The information on the back would indicate that the photographer used a camera with multiple lens.
...............................................................................
 |
| Card size 2.375" width x 2.875" height |
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| Image is 1.5" width x 2" height |
Today most tintypes are to be found without frames of any sort, like the one above (though there's a slight shadow on the image to indicate that it originally had a paper frame). There's a great paradox in collecting such antique images of children. On one hand, their whole future lies before them, and on the other hand, we know that they've already lived it and passed on.
There's also a great irony in such tintypes, and the irony is that they've survived more than a hundred years, only to be scratched up today! Most antique dealers don't really value tintypes, and so they pile them together in tight little boxes where equally clueless customers carelessly thumb through them. I fault dealers for this, because it would take very little to place tintypes in albums with protective plastic pockets.
...............................................................................
 |
| Images are 2" width x 2.5" height |
...............................................................................
 |
| Image is 2" width x 2.5" height |
This gutta percha is one of two that I've had re-gilded. It came empty, so I filled it with a paper photograph of a gentleman named John W. Means.
I came upon a grouping of photos of Mr. Means, who apparently spent his life in Ohio, and I found it interesting to see him age. Isn't the back of that last carte de visite wonderful?
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| Carte de visites are all approximately 2.5" width x 4" height |
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I generally don't collect paper photographs, in large part because my focus has been on daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes. But nice examples of those three categories are getting a little harder to find, and sometimes I happen upon a truly stunning image, or one that's a little out of the ordinary.
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| Image is 3" width x 4" height |
...............................................................................
 |
| Image is 2" width x 2.5" height |
This may or may not have been my first daguerreotype, but I remember that the case was my first gutta percha. Fortunately for me, it was in excellent condition, and I therefore had, right from the beginning, a high standard for judging other purchases.
It's important in all the excitement of a new collection to maintain a degree of discernment. One wants to look for quality, and even then, it can be a good idea to map out some boundaries. In my case, I realized at some point that I was just as interested in good gutta percha cases as I was in daguerreotypes. So I decided to collect only mint or near-mint cases, and I further decided to concentrate on the ones that held images 2" x 2.5" (called "ninth plates"). For me, the smaller images and cases have always had a jewel-like quality. If you scroll back through these pages, you'll see that I've concentrated on quality, rather than quantity.
If you've read all of my narrative, you also know that I not only collect daguerreotypes and cases, but I collect people. I've imbued them with the personalities I imagine they had, and I've wondered about their lives. And so part of my collecting has been to choose the sort of lovely people I'd like to share time with. I've callously and unabashedly shunned homely images for prettier faces, and in doing that, I've matched nicer photos to nicer cases. Some dealers and collectors would call that "cannibalizing." There are some purists who think it's a very bad idea to switch images and cases to create a nicer pairing, and I understand their point of view. If the image is switched from case to case, the collector might lose some valuable information for tracking who the photographer was, or perhaps some information about the sitter. But the truth of the matter is that nowadays, most daguerreotypes are found without their cases, and many cases are sold empty.
When you look at a gutta percha case, you'll see that the clasp and the hinges are incised into the frame, meaning that areas of multiple wear and tension are thinner and more easily stressed. It's at these points that the cases might eventually crack and ultimately fall apart.
When buying a gutta percha case, look at the sides where the clasp and hinges are, and if they're without cracks, you've probably found a wonderful case. Happy hunting!
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Thanks for visiting my pages of antique photography!
Please visit again.
Please visit again.
This was fascinating. I really enjoyed it. Thanks!
ReplyDelete— Barbara in Pensacola
Thanks for visiting, Barbara!
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