Black Market Antiques Blog

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.

I love old photos, so when I was given several World War II albums of photos to scan to put into Black Market Antique’s online inventory I rather enjoyed the task.  I’ve scanned scores of photos, mostly snapshots from circa 1942-43, and have even added a few of them to the online catalog.  I will be adding new photos as time permits over the next few weeks (I’m sure I’ll be given a whole different type of item to deal with before I get all of the photos uploaded).

The first group of photos that I have added includes some great photos of soldiers in swim trunks in beach scenes, including several of a pretty buff man named Chester.  Although Chester doesn’t have the ideal body of today, he was refreshingly buff compared to the other relatively scrawny soldiers in the photos.  These photos have been added the the Snapshots>Men>Gay Interest category under snapshots.