Antique Tintype, Gentleman w/ Pin & Goggles?

Hello,

I just got back from Vacation and found a couple interesting photos while I was away.

The first is this Tintype.

A very handsome, ethnic looking gentleman. He has a pin and ribbon on his shirt.
An odd pair of socks (or at least they look odd to me)

And a pair of goggles? Coming out of his shirt, half poking out the jacket?


Any opinions would be great!

Thank you in advance!

 

Can you by any chance get a closer picture of the socks, or what ever they are? I can't really tell what they look like.

 

Looks like thick fisherman's socks, but the pant legs look like they pretty much end just below the knees (you can see the lower end of the pant leg on his left/our right.)

 

Thanks... I forgot that some of these can be enlarged. Now I can see the socks very well.

 

I see a plaid necktie, but I don't see goggles. ???

 

There is something hanging over the tie. You can see the strand coming down towards the base, where it sort of C's off and there is something transparent part of the C.

Not sure if they are glasses? Goggles?

 

He also looks to have a rope belt?

Here is a better image of the socks

Also, can see the thing handing in front of the tie in this one.

 

I don't think that's a rope "belt." You can see where it's tied to a belt loop? and that the pants have a long way to go above where the "rope" or cord cross his stomach.

 

Outdoorsman of some kind. Something that would require leg protection and warmth.
Tanned face, working hands. Fingers on left hand appear stained. Right hand has scratches on the knuckles or the tintype was touched up.

Probably in his best clothes. As baker said the rope is tied to his belt loop. Possibly his version of a watch chain.

Magnifying glass on the cord? His version of reading glasses?

 

Does he have feet? It looks to me like his feet have been amputated.

 

I think his feet are outside the framing of the shot. Also, tintypes often look very dark at the outer edges.

 

I probably haven't any better suggestions then what have been posted. My 1st and last impressions are that he is an immigrant at Ellis Island. The pin on his coat may be some sort of ID tag. I do know each immigrant was issued an identification tag or card that was attached to their coats through out the whole process. I don't know if it was pinned or tied on.

I think the background of the pic is looking across water at the NYC skyline like he is sitting on a bench on Ellis Island. On cropping, zooming in and editing the pic I can see the water line behind him with the NYC skyline in the distance. On the bottom left at his right elbow appears to be a fence and beyond that the edge, waterline, the water and across the water the skyline.



As to the glasses, goggles, or magnifier, it appears to be under his shirt like he is hiding them. Many people were and probably still are embarrassed to wear glasses especially viral young men. He may not have wanted his pic taken wearing glasses. The glasses may be attached to the cord?

I haven't a clue about his footwear. I don't know it he is wearing the biggest heaviest socks in the world, big old galoshes/boots with his trouser legs tucked into them, or early 1900 leg warmers! The bottom of the pic has been clipped off or just wasn't that long resulting in the actual pic of his feet not being seen. They (he and/or the photographer) thought the top half of him and the skyline were the important features to be shown.



Wait a minute!! Just had another thought, he may be a newly arrived immigrant sitting on a park bench on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Back in the early 1960s I sublet an apartment with another girl on Brooklyn Heights not far from the St. George Hotel. It was hardly a block walk down to the Promenade that had a spectacular view of the Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan. It was a tourist mecca then and no doubt in his day. No doubt there would have been itinerant photographers out there on a lovely Sunday afternoon. Between him and the waterline, there does look like a walk area/promenade.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Bro...NvrLgDA&ved=0CDQQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=739&dpr=0.8

--- Susan

 

Hm, Susan -- I thought the background was a painted backdrop, as they almost always are in these types of photos. That would be really interesting if it was taken outdoors!

Fig

 

Scrape the idea of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade because that wasn't built until the 1940s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Heights_Promenade

>background was a painted backdrop<

You may right, Fig. With my eyes I can't tell if the wrinkling effect is from damage to the pic or a loosely hanging backdrop. If it is a painted backdrop, it may be of the NYC skyline?

--- Susan

 

Hi Sue,
The promenade was not built until much later than this photo. I lived on Hicks St in the Heights two blocks from the St George. I loved the views. Two years ago they built a walkway from the Prom to the waters edge.
greg

 

Methinks he is Polish, or thereabouts, and that his footgear is a kind of wadding that repels water -- or at least keeps it from penetrating down to the flesh.* Hence, he is a miner named Stanislaus.

*I have actually seen these before. Somewhere...

 

Yea, Greg, after I posted that thought I did a quick lookup on the Promenade and came up with the 1940s. After I posted the scrape reply, I saw Fig's reply and pulled up my reply to add on the backdrop may be right. As I was editing it, you posted. Gee, we are all on at one time. I now think it is not an outdoor shot from Ellis Island because there is more distance between Ellis and NYC - more harbor, longer distance. Sooooooo at this moment, ya'll do ignore my message #12. Excuse me while I slink away and get another cup of tea.

--- Susan

 

>I lived on Hicks St<

Gee, Greg, we were just around the corner from each other. I was on Clark near the corner of Clark and Willow! We may have rubbed elbows somewhere or bumped fannies on the IRT (was it the IRT, I can't remember) subway at the Clark St. station whose entrance was literally inside the hotel. I have been back to NYC several times, but haven't been back to Clark Street in over 40 years. I don't even know if the St. George is in operation or even there. It was starting to get run down when I was there (1961 to 1963).

--- Susan

 

Wow. I don't see buildings, either. I see the shore of a lake with trees!

In the close up, it looks like a painted or printed backdrop because it looks like it ends at the floor right behind the bench.