Featured Help Dating This Image Please

Hello
I am hoping someone may be able to provide me a little info on this image please. How old is it? What is it?
My uncle (great,great)? was an amateur photographer from Birmingham from approx 1906 onwards. His name was Alfred Roffey. This pic was amongst a lot of his work that was left to my Grandmother and eventually passed on down to me. Its 8.5 cm x 7cm.
Thanks so much.
Tracey

 

Could you great great uncle have been taking photographs in 1903? Might he have been interested in politics? Left-wing politics?

If the answer is yes, it could have been this man? He would have been 33 years of age in 1903:



The ears cause me some doubts. How old would your GGU have been in 1903?

 

It looks like the image is a photograph of a drawing. If the support is glass (either dark glass, or painted on the back), it would be an ambrotype. If the support is lacquered metal, it would be a tintype. The preserver and mat (the metal frame parts) are typical of cased photos such as daguerreotypes and ambrotypes dating to the 1860s. The costume of the subject puts him a little earlier, in the 1850s.

 

Thank you Brian and thank you for your comments. Sadly I don't know the answers to your questions. I have only recently inherited all of this and am trying to sort through it all and make sense if it!
@2manybooks thank you. Yes, the support is glass. I find the gold earring interesting. Was this common in the 1850's. I think the man looks like a rogue

 

I agree with all of these comments. Exactly my perceptions. The frame around the picture definitely is from the late 1850s or (more likely) 1860s. As soon as I saw it I thought ambrotype. It could be a tintype, though. I suspect it also dates from the same period as the frame. Although tintypes continued to be made into the early 20th century, by then they were mostly cheap ones done at tourist venues. So your relative would not have created it, but probably collected it. It is a wonderful image, by the way.

 

Oh yes, perhaps because of his interest in photography. I was wrong to think he was an amateur photographer. Going through some more bits and pieces it turns out he had his own photography business. I didn't know what an ambrotype was but have googled it. I now know the difference between daguerreotype and ambrotype!! Can ambrotypes be restored?

 

From the cap, I would think he was a student.

Debora

 

Thanks Debora Any thoughts on the earring?

 

His cap is known as a mechanics, forage, or wheel hat. They were informal wear, popular in the pre-Civil War period.

"Among sailors, a pierced earlobe was a symbol that the wearer had sailed around the world or had crossed the equator."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earring

"In addition, it is commonly held[citation needed] that a gold earring was worn by sailors in payment for a proper burial in the event that they might drown at sea. Should their bodies have been washed up on shore, it was hoped that the earring would serve as payment for "a proper Christian burial".
https://www.italiangenealogy.com/forum/italian-history-culture/25973

Perhaps the young man was a sailor, and his portrait was drawn as a keepsake for someone before he went to sea again.

 

How intetesting. Thank you. I can't help but wonder how my GGU came by this but I do actually think it had something to do with his interest in photography

 

If you are talking about restoring the flaked areas on the surface of the image, I'm pretty sure that it's not possible to restore those areas. There are companies that do restoration through digitization of the image. I found the website for one in Australia for you to look at: https://www.timelens.com.au/

Don't know how far that is from you. It appears that yours does not have the protective outer case. Is that correct? Since it came down through your family I assume you are keeping it. If so, you might consider investing in a case. Empty cases from the period are sometimes available through eBay or other online sites. There are also people who make modern replica cases (marked as replicas). Both of these options could be a little pricey.

 

I also thought a sailor, and pretty early.

That is the way it was for Dutch sailors and fishermen. Some wore a single earring, some two.

Just showing off some Dutch fishermen's earrings

From Urk (love this type):



From Volendam:

 

I've never dated a man with an earring............only women !!!

 

I have.

 

@Figtree3 I found some more. Some have cases and some don't. The ones that don't have cases have a little circular hook for hanging. I have added some more images

 

@Any Jewelry I love these fishermen's earrings. I have never seen anything like this before.

 

Beautiful! They also look 1850s-60s.

 

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall back in those days

 

In a way you touch their lives by having these photos. That is what history is.

 

It's possible that some of these are daguerreotypes. The highly reflective one at the upper left of the first photo (with the rectangular opening in the mat) appears to be one. [EDIT: The one of the young woman in shorter sleeves also appears to be a dag.]

Now that you've read about the differences between daguerreotypes and ambrotypes, do you have thoughts on which ones are which?

It appears that your relative was not only a photographer, but also a collector of older photography!