TINTYPE

also called Ferrotype, positive photograph produced by means of a nitrocellulose (collodion) solution applied to a thin enamelled black iron plate immediately prior to exposure. The tintype, introduced in the mid-19th century, was essentially a variation on the ambrotype, an imitation daguerreotype made on glass. Just as the ambrotype was a negative whose silver images appeared grayish-white and whose dark backing made the clear areas of shadows appear dark, so the tintype, actually negative in its chemical formation, was made to appear positive by the black plate. In posing and lighting, the popular tintype portraits were identical to daguerreotypes; they were of the same standard sizes, and they were enclosed in the same type of case. They did not approach the brilliancy of daguerreotypes, however. By the 1860s the elaborate presentation of tintypes had been abandoned, and the metal sheets were simply inserted in paper envelopes, each with a cutout window the size of the image. Easy to make and inexpensive to purchase, tintypes remained a kind of folk art through the 19th century and were often used by sidewalk portraitists at parks, fairs, and beaches.