Interesting Photo

[Matthew Mickletz]

Man and his banjo, and friend, supposedly circa 1860s

Pretty cool!  Never saw this one before.

[Carl Anderton]

Neat photo, but the clothing styles are at least 1880's.  The banjo, too, has a lot of hooks for the 1860's but the real give away is the clothing.  Still a cool picture.

[Matthew Mickletz]

Was thinking the same thing Carl, due to the attire.  Scary if the auction house, where the photo originated from, didn't know better.

[Paul Draper]

The banjo player looks like Leonardo DiCaprio -- that would make it the '90's!

[Strumelia]

Paul, I thought the same thing!

Leonardo DiCaprio ,  dead ringer....

[Carl Anderton]

That's a great site, though, lots of interesting photos to scroll through.

[Paul Draper]

Indeed.  Just rapidly scrolling through I noticed a couple more of "gentleman with banjo".

[Strumelia]

There is also one of two black-face fellows, one holding a tambourine if I recall...?

[Matthew Mickletz]

Yeah, for the life of me I can't recall how I came across the website, but it's been book-marked for a little while now.  Facebook updates me when new photos are added, a nice thing.  A few accordions on there too!  

[Strumelia]

If the photo is reversed (and it looks like his hand is covering the 5th string peg on the bottom, it's a 5string banjo with the neck widening along the bottom side for the 5thstring, and note how the 2 vests close), then that explains the indistinct chord grab.

Bridge is positioned quite near the neck, if it's indeed there under his hand.

Dan'l said:

Nice vintage photo. With three layers of clothing over the banjo holder's shirt, I'm guessing it was taken in an outdoor or unheated studio in a Northern clime. I'm also suspecting the banjo holder is not a player given the indistinct chord grab (and a player would not prefer to be playing in an overcoat).  Interesting to note this is perhaps a 5th string tunnel banjo.

[Strumelia]

Yes I know, we are over-analyzing...but it's fun!   ;)

So here's another one for you, hah!...  :D 

What do you say about the way both of their vests are buttoned?-  is the photo not reversed?

[Paul Certo]

Many old photographs were printed backwards in news paper versions. I  may be wrong here, but I think it was mostly those printed on metal plates, such as Tinypes. There's a common photo of Billy The Kid holding a Winchester rifle, and with his revolver strapped on his left hip. This lead to a lot of people thinking he was left handed, even to the point of Paul Newman playing Billy in  a move called The Left Handed Gun. Later, a gun person familiar with the old Winchester rifles pointed out that no period Winchester rifles were made in the left handed configuration in the photograph, and that the photo was reversed. It is very possible this photo is one of those. http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/06/bill_koch_billy_the_...

Paul

[Phil]

it is a reversed tintype. I don't know why no one has thought to flip the photo and you can soon tell. here it is flip the way we would see it taken from today's cameras. Photographers usually worked outside at fairs, carnivals etc. and as the support of the tintype (there is no actual tin used) is resilient and does not need drying, photographs can be produced only a few minutes after the picture is taken. The tintype process became very popular in United States particularly during the Civil War. They continued to enjoy significant use throughout the 19th century for inexpensive portraits, particularly by street photographers.