Tintypes
Welcome to Antique Tintypes, your source for all current online auctions for antique photographs! Tintypes are what most people think of when they think of early photographs, but early photography actually includes tintypes, ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, carte de visites, and more. Read through the store pages for details of each type. Read below for information about tintypes.
Adolphe-Alexandre Martin introduced the tintype process in France in 1853 and Hamilton Smith patented it in 1856. The tintype, also known as ferrotype or melainotype, is derived from the ambrotype, but both were born of the wet-plate process used in daguerreotypes. The ambrotype and tintype are made with almost the exact same process, the biggest difference being what material the image is on. The ambrotype was a negative on glass, while the tintype was easier and cheaper to produce on a thin piece of laquer-backed black iron.
When compared to the earlier wet-plate processes, a tintype was very fast to produce. In only minutes a plate could be prepared, the picture could be taken, and the finished tintype could be varnished and given to its customer. Because of both the lightweight but durable iron used for tintypes and the multiple camera lenses used in the process, tintypes could easily be reproduced onto a single plate and cut up to place into albums, cartouche sleeves, lockets, etc. Because of their extremely low cost, tintypes spread quickly, especially throughout the United States in the mid-1860s, in time for the Civil War.
Since tintype copies were identical to the original negative plate, the images in tintypes are often reversed. Note in many tintypes that show book covers or newspapers, for example, the writing will be backwards. Some cameras had mirrors to fix this, while some photographers took pictures of the negative itself, thus showing a true image. A famous example of a mix-up is how Billy the Kid was wrongly believed to be left-handed because the negative images were being printed, showing his pistol to be on his left hip. Another misconception about tintypes is that the people in them were crosseyed. In reality, since the photos took several seconds, or in the case of poor lighting, minutes to expose, when the subject moves their eyes, their eye sockets give off a ghost-like effect, sometimes giving the appearance of being cross-eyed. You'll notice moving wagons in tintypes appear to be transparent.
To tell a tintype from a daguerreotype, place a magnet up to it. A tintype is made of iron so it will attract. The daguerreotype is made of silver-coated copper and will not. Also, dags will have a shiny mirror-like surface on the image. Tintypes will not. Also, daguerreotypes will always be contained in Union cases or another kind of serine, wood, metal, or plastic protective case. As far as the term, since they are not actually made of tin, some believe they were called tintypes because of the tin shears used to separate the images, though it’s generally believed “tin” just referred to other similar cheap metals.
The wet plate process was already outdated by the dry plate process in the 1880s, and tintypes were still sparingly used into the twentieth century. In fact, today, some photographers and hobbyists still use tintypes in their galleries and a few even teach the process to others in tintype bootcamps.