Hi black sheep,
A tintype is a photograph which instead of being on paper is on a sheet of iron.
The iron is painted black, then the photographic emulsion (in this case collodion) containing light-sensitive materials is poured onto the surface, and then the whole lot is put into the camera. When the photograph had been taken, the plate was removed from the camera and processed and dried.
In actual fact, a tintype is a negative image, but because it's on a black background, it looks positive.
Confusing, but if you think about what you normally put into a camera (at least before our wonderful digital ones came along!!!), it's negatives. We have to send the negs away to be processed, and then have positives printed from them. With tintypes, instead of putting a strip of plastic in the camera, you put a piece of metal.
With tintypes, you get one image and that's that - another reason to take good care of them if you are lucky enought to own one!!
Tintypes were invented in the 1850s and were very popular, but were used decreasingly between about 1900 and the 1940s when they died out altogether, so you have a late example and a "mid term" example in your collection.
Prue
