Ship Builders Schooner Hull Cabinet Card c1880
Ship Builders Schooner Hull Cabinet Card c1880 From my blog archives November 13, 2007 This particular image is a Cabinet Card that holds more than it appears to. On the surface, it's a rare image of a ship under construction. On close examination, things get fuzzy. First off, there are two small triangular black areas at the bottom left and right hand corners. These tell me that this is an Albumen photograph (a photograph made with egg white, no bacon please) of a Tintype photograph (no tin, just a sheet of iron with a collodion coating... go figure). It was not uncommon for photographers to make copies of earlier images either for resale or by request. The Tintype would have been a full-plate, a rarity in and of itself. Most Tintypes that we see are actually sections of the full plate. Cost was a factor as well as the work involved in producing the larger image. Most full-plate or half-plate Tintypes are outdoor scenes. Back to this image. While found in New England, identifying...