ANTIQUE VICTORIAN TINTYPE PHOTOGRAPH VERY SAD YOUNG BOSTON BOY ~ HAND PAINTED CHEEKS

ORIGINAL VINTAGE VICTORIAN ERA TINTYPE PHOTOGRAPH OF A VERY SAD LOOKING LAD FROM BOSTON. BACK OF PHOTO HAS SOME TYPED LABEL REMNANTS ABOUT A PHOTO STUDIO IN BOSTON. ORIGINAL FERROTYPE / TINTYPE PHOTOGRAPH ON TIN. PLEASE VIEW IMAGES OF ACTUAL ITEM AND ASK QUESTIONS.

A tintype, also known as a melainotype or ferrotype, is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as the support for the photographic emulsion. Tintypes enjoyed their widest use during the 1860's and 1870's. Tintype portraits were at first usually made in a formal photographic studio, but later they were most commonly made by photographers working in booths or the open air at fairs and carnivals, as well as by itinerant sidewalk photographers. Because the lacquered iron support (there is no actual tin used) was resilient and did not need drying, a tintype could be developed and fixed and handed to the customer only a few minutes after the picture had been taken. The tintype photograph saw more uses and captured a wider variety of settings and subjects than any other photographic type. It began losing artistic and commercial ground to higher quality albumen prints on paper in the mid-1860s, yet survived for well over another 40 years, living on mostly as a carnival novelty.