Here we have a tintype that argues with itself. A young man sits for his portrait in a dark sack coat, starched wing collar, and loosely knotted cravat, propped in front of the ornate flocked-wallpaper-and-column backdrop that every small studio kept rolled up in the corner for exactly this occasion. He's got a newspaper thrown open in one hand, angled up like he's mid-headline. His boots are crossed at the ankle and planted square on the parlor table in front of him. It tells a different story than the coat does. Soles have gone soft, the leather scuffed through, and the heels patched. Rockin!
That's the whole photograph, really. A man performing leisure his own boots won't back up. Somebody paid for a formal sitting. He dressed the part from the collar up, and then put his actual working feet in the frame anyway. Victorian studio portraiture ran almost entirely on stillness and solemnity with hands folded, spines straight, and eyes fixed somewhere past the lens. This one breaks that contract on purpose. Maybe he just doesn't care to keep it. Either way it's the kind of unscripted detail that makes vernacular photography worth chasing in the first place. Nobody stages the boots. You just don't manage to hide them.
Tintype, full black lacquered iron plate with the clipped corners standard to the period, sitting somewhere in the quarter-plate family (roughly 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches by eye, worth a tape measure before you treat that as gospel). No photographer's backmark or studio imprint that I can find, so the sitter and the studio both stay anonymous. Clothing and backdrop point toward the 1870s to 1880s, though tintype dating without paper to go with it is always an educated guess and not a certified one.
The old tintype comes out of a serious collector’s estate in Iowa. It was likely created in the 1870s or 1880s.Â
The tintype measures 3 1/2” x 2 1/2”. There is lacquer loss and emulsion flaking at upper right corner, scattered light scratches and surface spotting consistent with age. The face, hands, and boots remain sharp and well defined. It's currently housed in a protective plastic sleeve rather than a period case. Please see all pics as they are part of the description.
I ship FedEx to street addresses in the continental USA only (no PO Boxes). Free shipping of the crazy old tintype.Â
Seriously, just relax. That’s it.
