A collection of three antique Victorian tintype, or ferrotype, postmortem photographs. Postmortem photography, the practice of photographing the recently deceased, was an extremely prevalent form of photography in the Victorian era. More photographs of this type were taken than of any other single type of photography for the time period. Circa the 1880s. Tintype is the popular moniker for melainotype, which got its name from the dark color of the unexposed photographic plate, and ferrotype, named after the plates iron composition. Antique Victorian Photographs For Collectors.