[drcy]

I'm a photo historian and was a writer/researcher for the standard academic reference Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Photography, published out of London, and a few days ago a guy emailed me images of a CDV sized 1800s cloth photo (non sport, studio portrait of a guy)-- basically a tintype but on cloth instead of metal. He asked me about it as he could find no information on cloth photos. He called it his 'mystery photo.' I said I knew cloth tintypes were known to exist, but they are so rare I'd never even seen an image of one before his emails. He found it in in a 1800s CDV collection.

In his first email, he just described in it words as he thought it would be impolite to email images without asking first. I half expected from the words the images would show a commercial lithograph on silk, ala the baseball tobacco silk premiums, but it turned out to be a real photograph.

He just put it up on eBay if anyone's interested, and I can provide the link if asked. I don't spam auctions and am not a bidder or know the seller other than is emails, but it fit this thread. I can testify that its an ultra rare photo type, a type most people haven't even heard of before.

For historical background, it was technically possible to make tintypes on cloth, leather and wood, but it was almost never done. Just as it was technically possible for Topps to have printed cards on bricks.