William Culp Darrah states that the carte mounted tintype appeared in the United States as early as 1861.   S. Masury patented a card mount in Boston in 1863 with a windowed aperture surrounded by an embossed or printed wreath-like frame.  Simon Wing also in Boston patented his own card but was instrumental in increasing the popularity of the so called gem tintypes that were usually mounted in these cards by developing a patented camera with a repeating back which enabled multiple small exposures to be made on a single tintype plate.  Around 1870 the mount was redesigned to hold a larger tintype which approached the size of the sixth plate tintype form which was usually sold unmounted to be placed directly into a carte de visite slot in a photo album or mounted in a case or frame.

The tintype was introduced to Australia in 1858 but card mounted tintypes do not appear until at least the late 1870s and in 1880 a franchise of the American Gem Studio of Gove and Allen opened in Sydney.  Around this time a dry plate tintype had replaced the more cumbersome wet plate.  Branch studios of Gove and Allen were established in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane with temporary branches in Bundaberg, Maryborough and Charter's Towers.  Other operators caught on to the trend of this new "instantaneous photography" offered by the tintype.  Some studios dedicating themselves to just gem photography were established but most were short lived.  The Gove and Allen operations were all finished up by 1885.

Most of the tintype cartes found in Australia do not bear any photographers credit's.  Those that do are usually from a Gove and Allen studio and many of the unmarked examples are also from their studios.  A later example from the 1890s from the Mendelsohnn Studio of Melbourne has been seen.

For further history of gem and carte de visite tintypes see my site The Gem Tintype

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