I found (and bought) a full plate (well, 9x6 3/4 so a tad bigger) tin at the flea market today. While I have never looked for one before, how rare are larger tins? We do them all the time, but I have never come across an antique one. Upon seeing one, I decided that yeah, I need to get a camera that can do full plate.
cheers,
chriso

Thats ap retty strange plate in that the borders are masked. Very odd to see a wet plate image that obviously was supported on the sides instead of the edges. It makes me think the tin was hand cut to fit inside the maximum space of a whole plate holder. From the dress of the woman on the left, it looks like an 1870s era image. Obviously a wet plate image from the look of the drip edge (and quick fixing)....maybe this was done with a camera which was designed for dry plate? and a close cut holder?

Regardless, whole plate tins are rare, outdoor shots in general are MUCH rarer. Nothing scratched onto the back? a lot of thee old images have some ID put on over the years.

I am sure I may be wrong, but could it have been done via a copy camera. If you look at the top left, you see a corner clip mark.

www.guillorycameras.com

I can post a higher resolution image, if it would help.

Ty: the upper left corner had been bent a bit, the line is where the collodion chipped off. Also the drip line isn't marked at all. I dunno.
I did some snooping with an inspection scope here at work and found a couple things.
The man sitting has no wedding band (apparently) in the image's left hand, also the men's coats button on the left, the mirror of how the should. If it were a copy camera, wouldn't it be 'normalized'?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2010 02:30PM by phuphuphnik.

Yes, guess my thoughts were off.

www.guillorycameras.com

Not really. I thought the same thing when I bought it. Those edges raise a couple questions. It being a copy may or may not effect it's value either historically or whatever. Knowing what I have as accurately as I can is of great value to me has a learning tool. I'm still really new to collecting these things and any input I can get is quite important to me.
cheers!
chriso

I dont think its a copy plate. These always look "flat" and this one looks like you shot it yesterday, camera out there in the sunshine. It must have a dead quite still day though...not a whisper of movement in the leaves of the trees.

Too bad there is no engraving on the reverse of a location. I always wonder if the houses in images are still standing. It is a very nice image.

www.guillorycameras.com

I found my great uncles negatives....all c. 1906, his camera (a cycle wizard ) in my aunts attic years ago...and printed out all the imaages. Baby photos of my uncle taken in 1908, the local baseball team, groups, houses, a few early cars....all very neat. and yes some of the houses still stand. old photos are a unique link to our past and we are breaking that link now with most photos stored on computers.

twenty years from not (if not sooner) we will lose all of these.

I bought a few whole plate negatives on ebay a couple weeks ago, and I'm almost entirely convinced they are of a Mormon polygamist commune in Utah, circa 1890...

They're dry plates and the 6 I purchased all came from the same seller... Some that were listed had many of the same people in them, although I didn't buy them all.

I've got to get them scanned and posted, because they're really cool and different...whoever the photographer was had a sense of humor and seemed to put some thought behind what he was doing in terms of emphasizing a person's height, etc...

Looks like a copy image to me. Very popular through the late 1870s. You see people in 1840s clothing on full plate tins all the time. They were copied from dags by traveling photographers.

Not 100% sure but isnt the edge of the original print showing on the top and left of the plate?

If you copy a print it would be no different than taking a tintype in the camera. The tin would be backwards.

By the way Ive done this before myself. To copy a tintype I will scan it, reverse it and print it forward. Hang it up and shoot it on the another, larger plate. You can control the contrast in the print and also your development of the final plate. They look like originals.