Figure 1.--Here we see A 1925 German tintype in its paper sleeve. Two boys are shown, presumably brothers. One boy wears a sweater, knee pants, and knee socks. His brother wears a white shirt and knee pants. We are not sure if he wears knee socks or long stockings. "Andenken an 1925" means "In memory of 1925". The background may depict the skyline of the town.

We are not sure when the first German titypes were made. We suspect it was the mid-1850s, but can not yet confirm this. Tis was at a time with Daguerreotypes were popular, but rather expensive. It was alo when ambrotypes also appeared. All of these early processes seem much less common in Germany than in he United States. Certainly tintypes were being made by the 1860s. They seem most common by the 1890s-1900s, but that is only a prelinary assessment. Our archive of German tintypes is so limited that it is difficult to draw ay firm chronological assessments yet. We see German tintypes into the early 20th century, but not commonly after World War I. The last ones we have found are from the 1920s.

Created: 10:50 PM 11/18/2009
Last updated: 10:50 PM 11/18/2009