Figure 1.--This is a large (half plate 5 1/2" X 4 1/4") tintype portrait of a brother and sister. Notice the very basic furniture and studio backdrop. The tin-type has a faint oval halo framing the boy & girl. We suspect that it was housed in an old frame at one time. We are unsure how to date it. We suspect that it was taken in the 1870s, but the boys's suit looks earlier to us. We are less sure about the girl's dress.

The chief advantage of the tin-type was that it was inexpensive. It was also more durable than the glass ambrotype. The low cost of ambrotypesaffected both the stdios and theclentelle to which the appealed. At first tin-types in the 1850s and early-60s were done like Dags and Anbros in cases. Soon we see cheaper presentations, but still with frames. By the mid-60s they were simply placed in paper sleeves. They seemed by this time to be primarily offered by low-cost very basic studios. Early tin-types are posed rather like Anbros and Dags, but by the 1870s we begin to see clearly low-budget operations. You can tell this by the often not very professional poses and the commonly hap-hazzard setting and backdrop, Gradually the tin-type became mostly offered by itinerant studios which often set up in fairs and carnivals. There were some excellent tin-types done, but many were clearly not very professional. It also means that we often see lower-income people in the tin-types than we see from permant studios with better equipment and shoo areas, nice furniture as well as nice backdrops. This is helpful because we see the clothes worn by lower-income people who are also often not as dressed up as the clientelle of an established studio.

Created: 3:52 AM 7/3/2012
Last updated: 1:35 AM 10/17/2012