Original Tintypes of my Family

About 11 years ago, when my grandma made a fall in her house, we took her in for a couple of months. It was clear that she could no longer look after herself and seeing that her husband died years ago, leaving her in that house all by herself didn’t seem like a good idea. Eventually we cleared out her house and up onto this day she resides in a nursing home.

Not too long ago, I think about a month ago, my dad mentioned she brought along some photos on metal. Last week I remembered that, partially because of another project of which I hope to tell you more soon, and asked my dad to look them up. They turned out to be genuine Tintypes! Some of the people portrayed are my grandmother and her sister so obviously they don’t date from the late 1800’s (I’m not (yet) that old) but they date from around 1930. We’re not the only ones who have chosen this process over the more common ones at the time being 😉

They are very small in size. They seem to be ‘sixteenth plate’ Tintypes: +- 41 x 47mm (1⁵/8 × 2¹/8″). One seems to have been made on a sort of plastic so not really a tintype and it’s the one in the worst condition too. Due to the high age of my grandmother and the accompanying discomforts it’s impossible finding out who exactly are on the photos. But….very cool we have them!