Tintype photographic portrait of a mother and daughter, late 1870s.

[Australia or U.S.A. : photographer unidentified, between 1875 and 1880]. Sixth plate tintype photograph with hand colouring, 102 x 62 mm; a few surface scratches, else in good condition.

The seated woman is holding a book in her left hand, the cover title of which is legible: it reads The Illustrated Aesop’s Fables for Schoolchildren. Was she a teacher? The adolescent girl (presumably her daughter) wears a choker with a crucifix. The cheeks of both sitters have delicate rose tinting.

The tintype, or ferrotype, was a very cheap (but too often nasty) photographic process which became popular in North America during the Civil War period. It met with fairly limited success in Australia from the early 1870s to around 1900, but never seriously challenged the universal appeal of the albumen print carte de visite.