I've always got an eye out for old photographs made more interesting and evocative via the effects of time and think this tintype is definitely one of those. It makes me think a bit of little miss muffet sitting on her tuffet and then the spider coming along to cast her in its web, and also of a reflection captured in a shattered mirror. One of the things I like about this sort of photographic deterioration is that feels as if having emerged from within the photo itself rather than occurring on the surface of it, and so feels as if revealing something about the spirit of the subject, which of course spiritualists attempting to photograph ghosts and auras were simultaneously attempting to do. Viewed in a certain way it also appears as if one of this girl's legs was chopped off a little below the knee!
3 1/2" x 2 5/16" and apart from the craquelure, in very good condition.
