Two on a bench. Private Collection.
If you’re smiling on a tintype, you’re halfway to joining my collection. This is a set of late period ones, I’d say 1910s-1920, of very relaxed and smiling friends posing together on a bench. The two on the first are also on the second, accompanied by their two other friends. The gent to the right on the first is smiling so wide on both, he really got into it!
Trio in top hats. 1/6th plate tintype. Private Collection.
The backdrop is worth noting. Nature themed it was tastefully done, conveying more the idea of trees than figuratively so.
Larger detail.
Barkeep serving group. Tintype circa 1880s-90s. Private Collection.
A tintype of a barkeep standing over a fur rug and re-enacting pouring ale to a group of gentlemen with a little boy looking on. The gent to the far right’s expression is funny. He looks disappointed as if saying “but there’s nothing in my glass…”
Studio photographs of fellows drinking together were very common. Because saloons were most always the main place for men to socialize and organize away from the house,they wished to remember their after-work get-togethers with a studio picture.
1880s three brothers and their other. Tintype. Private Collection.
These three brothers look very close in age, a pair of twins in the mix maybe? Maybe the two in straw boaters to the right. Note the chap to the front left who I think is the third brother, he’s wearing some nice looped buttons on his shirt, a short double tie and a light bowler. The whole look makes him look very ‘western sheriff’. The fourth man looks related too, same ears, same nose but of a darker complexion with different eyes. Maybe he was a cousin…or half brother. Ha! :)
No waistcoats on all four…Too hot for summertime.
Larger detail.
Digital restoration work titled 1880s Three Brothers And Their Other by Caroline C. Ryan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The 1880s fireman. Tintype. Private Collection.
A beautiful tintype in excellent shape of an American fireman posing with his horn and cigar. This picture captured his uniform in crisp details.
I just so love the ornate speakerphone-like horn with the mouthpiece and sling. I wish I had a time machine to see him shouting in it for people to get out of the way. :) And he’s wearing a ribbon on the shirt representing some kind of event. The CW must have stood for the town he worked for.
All in all, a very handsome fireman who posed splendidly some hundred and thirty years ago.
Bowlers And High Collars 