Fun tintypes

[barrysloate]

Steve- those are very cool, and you might be right that the first image is an actor holding a bat, perhaps for a play. It's a nice combination of baseball and humor. Thanks for sharing.

[drc]

Don't recall the same player appearing in three tintypes like that

[steve B]

Thanks guys. I'm a bit on the fence about thinking it's a player or an actor. It's an odd set of pictures for a player for sure. I hadn't thought about a player only being in one or similar poses, probably because I've only seen single tintypes of players.

But if he's an actor then the women would presumably be other performers in the play. I'd think that other performers would look a bit happier about having thir pictures taken in costume.

Certainly a fun puzzle.

Steve

[FUBAR]

did ball players wear pilgrim style shoes back in the day??

[GaryPassamonte]

Pilgrim shoes.

[Jason19th]

Very neat item-- my guess that is that the bat was just one of the props that the studio had

Made me think of a strange image I have-- John Ward and actors-- printed in Ward's 1888 Cosmopolitan Magazine article

[drc]

They count as baseball tintypes because they have, at the least, baseball themes.

Many photographers didn't want players wearing their cleats in the studio, so had them were other shoes or slippers. That would explain the odd footwear.

My opinion/educated guess is the guy is a baseball player in his own uniform, and is posing with members of his family and friends. They were just getting various family shots in one studio session. Though it is possible he is wearing a studio costume.

In the bottom photo, I'm sure there's some goofing around.