Featured ambrotype or Daguerreotype ?

Daguerreotypes have a mirror surface that are best viewed either from a slight angle, or while reflecting a dark background. Ambrotypes and tintypes look more like "conventional" photographs and can be vies from any angle with ease. The image shown above, in my opinion, is not a daguerreotype.

I have several dags, ambros, and tintypes in my collection, and several years ago, was a practicing collodion photographer. Always wanted to learn the dag process but never did.

 

Thanks for tagging me! I finally saw it just now! Looks like your questions have been answered. You've opened it and saw "blackened back glass" -- Does this mean dark paint on the glass? Or is the glass actually a dark color? In any case, if it's actually glass it would have to be an ambro. Lots of different methods were used to darken the back of an ambrotype. And by the way, I do have ambrotypes that look like tintypes. I used to always take them apart to check. It's not always possible to tell what they are from an online photograph.

Oh, and I checked Sean Nolan's book Fixed In Time. It is a detailed study of the dating of mats, preservers, and cases. The mat is the brass frame that is closest to the image, and the preserver is the piece of brass around the outside edge of the mat that holds it all together. I found the mat for yours dated in the mid-1850s range. It seems the preserver is about that time period, too -- or a little later. But somebody could use an older mat with a slightly newer preserver.

You didn't show the back of the case, but if you'd like to do that I could check Nolan's book to see a possible date. One thing to be aware of, though. This item is over 150 years old, and things can be changed through time. A case can be changed by later owners or collectors, etc. But not always...

 

Thanks for taking a look fig, and for the info

Yeah it's clear glass that has been blackened on the back

I presume they did that to make the image more clearer to view.

The case just slipped off, so can see how they could be interchangeable over the years

 

Here's another Ambrotype tid-bit:'The “common ambrotype” is a clear glass support backed with a dark piece of textile, metal, secondary glass or paper, or painted directly onto the back of the image. The “ruby ambrotype” is printed onto a dark glass support that is red when viewed in transmitted light. This technique doesn’t require additional backings. Known examples of ambrotypes printed on yellow or blue glass supports exist, but the occurrence is rare.'

 

Well, if you do want me to see if I can find the case design in Nolan's book, please feel free to post a photo of it here.

 

1.A family group of Abolitionist/Temperance Singers
2.A man who loved his hat.
3.A blind man & his guide.
4.Family group.
5.Native American.

 

@bosko69 - Although the images you have been posting can be found through google image search, it would be nice/helpful if you posted links to their origins. (Blame the academic in me, always wanting citations.)

 

That would be nice! (Academic background here, too.)

 

keep um coming bosky, they are fascinating !!

couldnt the blind man FEEL that his glasses were on wonky

 

heres the back fig if it helps to date it, and to show how easily it came out, without any real struggle at all

 

2ManyBks-Sorry,I've got to start posting links to the pics.From lots of time searching Abe Books,I know most all decent bibliophiles are academics & scholars.Not necessarily diplomaed,but naturally very inquisitive minds.
Charlie glad you're getting a kick out of the photos.

 

I'll try. That one seems to be less distinctive than some others, but maybe that will also help.

 

Books,here's a few links to the dags-
https://www.ebay.com/itm/354788900263?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/285466
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/283176
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/282046
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/283182

PS-First one didn't work,i think it's on Ebay-offer 12K(?).

 

I didn't find this exact case in the book. Most cases had the same design on front and back, but some didn't. The book includes a few "plain" designs for the backs of cases. It doesn't include this one but perhaps it is one of those. Oh, well -- I tried!

 

I've seen ruby ambrotypes on red glass (probably the most common). The only one I have in my small collection, though, is of an unidentified Confederate soldier done on purple glass.

Just for clarification, the images aren't "printed" onto the glass, rather the collodion emulsion is poured directly onto the glass, and is then sensitized in a silver nitrate solution. The glass, or tin, or whatever material used to support the collodion actually is part of the original image.