another day another challenge

[tomkin]

because the motorbike got bent right up at one corner

        My motorbikes used to get bent up at the corner quite often.
             Car drivers!!!!!

          The use of metal plates quite intrigues me. I could understand if
    the photo's were taken very early in the the 19th century but not in the
    middle of the 20th century. Were any of them amateur photographers
    i.e. with their own darkrooms etc) ?  They could have had access to the
equipment and may have been experimenting as we used to do when making our own
  photographic papers and pinhole cameras.

       Tomkin AKA       Tomkin the Hedgecutter. ( where the H... is that cement mixer?)

[genie.fan]

My try at it ....

Genie

[PaulaToo]

I love the sepia one, genie. My Dad looks as though he's got winkle pickers on...

Tomkin, that's tragic about the bikes  I don't think anyone was into photography. Snap happy, but not going any further.

I've PM'd Prue, Poll.
I wonder what she will have to say.

[PrueM]

Here I am!! 

Thanks for the PM Paula - I haven't been as diligent lately on the Photo board as I should be, so sorry I missed this thread...

They are tintypes - Tomkin is right, they were around from the mid-19th century but they hung around right up through the 1920s and I believe even into the 1940s (although I've never seen one that late).  I have seen ones from the early 20th century and many of them are taken at the seaside, as if there were photographers hanging around there in the summertime to take piccies for you when you had a day out.  Here is a quote from
http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/1_early/1_early_photography_-_processes_-_tintype.htm

Tintypes in the UK were more likely to be produced by itinerant photographers (seaside etc.) because the tin was light and unbreakable and tintypes became more and more popular in the 1880s and 1890s and lasted until as late as the 1930s on some beaches.     

Hopefully that has solved your mystery, Paula 

Cheers all

Prue   

[PaulaToo]

Thanks for that Prue...
I know they are funny looking things and I've always wondered what the heck they were.
Strange how you forget things. I suddenly thought of them the other day and put them on here in the hope that something could be done...
Then we started to wonder...
Problem solved.
Oh, you're a lovely bunch...all of you.
Paula

[tomkin]

 Hi PrueM,
                    Can you advise Paula how best to save them,
    apart from keeping them from going rusty,

     Tomkin

[PrueM]

Hi Tomkin and Paula and everyone,

Best way to keep them safe is to wrap them in a good quality, neutral or alkaline tissue paper (art suppliers should be able to sell you this) and keep them flat and protected from humidity and flexing.  Do a nice high quality scan so you have a good copy you can look at, and store the originals away.  Flexing the metal makes the emulsion crack and pop off, which causes oxidation of the iron underneath (they're really not made of tin).

Cheers
Prue

[rancegal]

There were indeed photographers at seaside places taking snaps of holidaymakers (see my comment about Gratispool in an earlier message on this thread). During the heyday of British seaside holidays it must have been quite a lucrative trade. I think I'm right in saying that if you were only on a day trip you could have your photo taken in the morning and pick up the prints before you went home.
    Thank you for the explanation of tintypes, I've often wondered what they were.

[PaulaToo]

Well, you learn something every day, don't you.
Now I know about tintypes and I've actually got some.
They have been kept all these years in a pretty little cardboard box that is just their size. I shall get some acid free paper and layer them in it, then put them away safe. My dear little Mum must have thought a lot of them, because they seem to have had special treatment. Perhaps it was a memory of a special day. They certainly look very happy.
Thank you one and all.