19th Century Tin-Type Baseball Photo - Help?

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Posted By: Dalkiel

Hi. My first post here. I was directed here from another site. I recently picked up this tin-type photo at an estate sale. It was in an old photo album. Unfortunately the picture is very dark, so I hope you can see it clearly. It appears to be someone in a baseball uniform at a train station. Now, I know I'm not fortunate enough for this to be someone of any importance, but I assume that a picture of this age(probably 1870-1900ish?) and of this subject has got to have some sort of moderate value. Any help would be appreciated.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

From the uniform, it appears to be about 1890s, very early 1900s. This is late for a tintype. Earlier ones are more desirable, but all baseball tintypes are scarce and worth something financially.

Few baseball tintypes are of famous or even known players, so it's not a big deal if it's no one famous.

Any baseball tintype at an estate or garage sale is a nice pick up.

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Posted By: Dalkiel

Thanks for your response. I guess I'll just have to throw it on eBay and see what happens.

Too bad he has that jacket on, maybe I could find out a little more information. The photo album it came from, the family was from Boise, Idaho. Most of the photos inside are from 1913-1925, but this was the only tin-type and I know there weren't many tin-types being made after the turn-of-the-century thus my guesstimate on the date.

Anyway, thanks again. I appreciate the help.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

There were a few tintypes being made after 1900, though not many on today's market.

I don't beleive I've seen before a tintype of a player wearing his warmup sweater. Don't know if that makes it more or less valuable to buyers.

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Posted By: ramram

...like it could be from just after the turn of the century. You don't see them often from that late, and usually when you do they are from carnivals and entertainment parks, but the uniform appears to be from that time. Another way to sometimes tell is that the tin from the tintype usually got thinner and thinner (cheaper and cheaper) as time progressed. The tin that was used in the 1860's was thicker and very inflexible and by the time you got to the few remaining photographers of the turn-of-the-century, they were using tin that flexed about like heavy paper. The samples I've seen from this late period also seem to often be over/underexposed or of poor quality. You'd think that the quality would have improved by then but to the contrary, the exposure was often poor as was the general quality (i.e. cheap!).

Rob M.