<p>Unstandardized plate size tintype on chocolate plate. Mounted in a shiny light blue card stock "Philadelphia Carte Envelope" with oval window and decorated with printed red design, backed with thin lavender-colored paper. Manufactured likely by Nixon &amp; Stokes (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) circa 1870-1880. Front of lavender flap depicts black-stamped image of two Victorian-dressed long-haired girls peering into a mirror with the name of the photographic studio penned on the back, reading "Johnson's National Gallery, 809 Pa. Ave., Washingt'n D. C." "James B. Beals," "Katherine Beals," and "Caroline Beals" are the three legible names listed of six penned in cursive (pencil) on the interior flap of the lavender colored-paper. "James B. Beals" is written in pencil on the backside of the card mount.
PH Coll 500.TN13</p>
<p> The chocolate plate emerged on the tintype scene in June of 1869 in Worcester, Massachusetts under the manufacturing of Phoenix/Phoenix Plate Company. An independent U.S. patent was issued in March of 1870 for the production of chocolate plates, in which the iron plate was coated with an India red and linseed oil varnish. Chocolate plates were highly successful, as they were heralded to provide "a more lifelike appearance" to flesh and provide "more delicate shading" to drapery</p>
Johnson's National Gallery
circa between 1872 and 1874 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1872-00-00T00:00:00Z/8,P1319,+1872-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1874-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
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