Black Market Antiques Blog

I had two projects for this weekend, right a blog article and do the recycling.  Got the recycling done Saturday and put off the blog article for lack of a topic.  But now it’s Monday morning and I need to get the blog thing done before the boss has a fit.

Black Market Antiques strives to do our small part to help the environment by being as “Green” as possible.  This weekend, I drew the short straw and, as mentioned, got the task of doing the recycling for the warehouse.  Part of BMA’s green commitment involves recycling as much of our waste as possible.  This includes everything from cardboard scraps and junk mail to tin and other metals.  In addition to recycling, Black Market Antiques also tries to reuse items that do not fit in our online inventory of antiques and collectibles.

I started the recycling by separating all the paper, cardboard and metal scrap.  This included about 400 pounds of pamphlets from doctors’ offices in several large tubs that were found in a recent estate where we had to clear out everything.  If I needed to know about the latest and greatest kidney medications from 1982 or procedures for repairing a prolapsed rectum, I’m sure I could have found that info in the thousands of brochures.  Once separated I loaded the truck and was off to the local recycling drop off center where I put the different types of materials into their appropriate roll-off containers.

After the recycling was accomplished it was back to the warehouse to load up a load of mostly household items for delivery to the local donation thrift store.  Some local coffee mug collector will probably come close to peeing themselves with delight when the store puts out the couple hundred contemporary mugs onto the shelves for sale.  Lots of newer glassware and dishes went to the thrift store…along with what seemed like literally tons of newer children’s books.

In addition to recycling and donating goods, Black Market Antiques is proud of our effort to try to reuse as much packaging materials as possible from other local businesses.  Doing not only keeps this filler out of the landfills, at least for a time, but also helps to keep shipping costs down.

If you have an organization that is in need of second-hand items in the Brookville, Pennsylvania area, contact us to see if we have what you are looking for.  In the process of acquiring antique and collectible items, Black Market Antiques routinely ends up with a lot of household type goods and newer retail goods that just don’t fit our market.

We just got in a collection of hundreds of old photographs, including several dozen tintypes.  Tintypes were the first photographs that employed the use of props and backgrounds or backdrops on a consistent basis.  The photo at the left shows that photographers in the 1870′s, might not have been considered artists as they are today, or at least artists with spacial perception issues.  The kids in the photo all have looks of shock on their faces, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the sky is also filled with a river and hills.

For the newest tintypes added to the Black Market Antiques inventory, check our Newly Listed Items page or you can browse all the tintypes in the tintypes category.

Normally Black Market Antiques does not give exact measurements of antique photographs, as most 100+ year old photos have pretty uniform sizes.  This page should help you determine the size of an old photograph if you are not familiar with the different size terminology.

Tintype Photographs: Tintype photograph sizes are refered to the size of the photo in relation to the size of a full plate of tin (roughly 6 1/2 X 8 1/2 inches).  So therefore the various plate sizes are as follows, but keep in mind, actual photo sizes may vary because of trimming.  Some antique cameras also allowed the photographer to take photos larger than full plate size.

Full Plate: 6.5 X 8.5 inches
1/2 Plate: 4.5 X 5.5 inches
1/4 Plate: 3 1/8  X  4 1/8 inches
1/6 Plate: 2.5 X 3 inches
1/9 Plate: 2 X 2 1/2 inches
1/16 Plate: 1 5/8  X  2 1/8 inches
Gem: 1/2 X 1 inch

Ambrotype Photographs: Roughly same sizes as mentioned above for tintypes.