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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Figtree3, post: 214284, member: 33&quot;]Hi,</p><p><br /></p><p>A daguerreotype looks like a shiny mirror when you look directly at it. It&#039;s often difficult to see the image unless you hold it at an angle. I can&#039;t tell if yours is like that or not. Don&#039;t confuse the &quot;shiny mirror&quot; effect with the cover glass over the image. Daguerreotypes look almost like the image is sort of embedded into a mirror. Hard to explain, but once you see it you would never mistake a dag for anything else.</p><p><br /></p><p>This could be an ambrotype or a daguerreotype. I also would like to see it out of the case because then it would be extremely easy to tell what it is. And since it is in poor condition, taking it out of the case would not hurt it if you are careful.</p><p><br /></p><p>I can say that technically the Union Case refers to the thermoplastic cases made from the mid 1850s to mid 1860s. What you have is not a Union Case. Instead it&#039;s a wood frame case covered in cloth. That being said, many people refer to all antique photo cases as union cases, so I can understand the confusion.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ambrotypes and tintypes can be almost impossible to tell apart while still in the case. Since you say a magnet doesn&#039;t stick that would seem to eliminate tintype, as long as it&#039;s a good magnet. </p><p><br /></p><p>There are techniques for getting these out of their cases but I&#039;m not sure that I can explain it well. I use a method that is not recommended by most, and don&#039;t think I should include it here. This forum is searched by bots and shows up in online searches. </p><p><br /></p><p>Here are a couple of pages that might help:</p><p><a href="https://maureentaylor.com/tell-cased-images-apart/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://maureentaylor.com/tell-cased-images-apart/" rel="nofollow">https://maureentaylor.com/tell-cased-images-apart/</a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.city-gallery.com/learning/guide/cased-images.php" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.city-gallery.com/learning/guide/cased-images.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.city-gallery.com/learning/guide/cased-images.php</a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.daguerre.org/default.asp?page=DagFAQ" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.daguerre.org/default.asp?page=DagFAQ" rel="nofollow">http://www.daguerre.org/default.asp?page=DagFAQ</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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