Featured Antique photographic Method Question

I don't know that they're carbon prints either. It's the only process of which I am aware that uses physical layering of colors to create an image. It's not a process I've ever used.

 

Well, for those of you who might be watching this thread I have an update. I,ve taken "2manybooks" advice of post 3/2/19 and contacted Lisa Duncan of Seattle, Wa. I sent her numerous photos and I heard back from her this A.M. and she named them "Ivorytype" photos. She invited me to visit her Seattle studio, with the photos, next time I travel to Seattle and we will verify them. I will be going to Seattle next month so it should be interesting. In Googling "ivorytype" I'm not sure that it fits exactly but it is a solid start. I will be updating this discussion whenever I learn more.

 

Gus, if I remember correctly some comments in a photo collector group discussion on Facebook, the term Ivorytype may have been used for more than one type of photo in the 19th century. I'm not remembering the details, but I think talking with a knowledgeable person who can look at them will be instructive!

 

Great! Ivorytype is not a method I have encountered before, so I will be interested in hearing what you learn.

 

This description of the ivorytype process from the Eastman Museum does sound like what you have:
"This rare mid-19th-century technique involved making a gold-toned salted paper print on thin paper and adhering it to a piece of glass. A second, hand-colored paper print from the same negative is mounted behind the glass mounted print allowing the colors to filter through. The effect is soft and beautiful."
https://www.eastman.org/event/workshops/american-ivorytype
Cool!

 

Doesn't show the layers, but...At 1:37 good image of "Ivorytype" label.



Published on Aug 2, 2013
The American Ivorytype was introduced by Frederick Wenderoth in 1855. The positive print was painted, then waxed and glued side up to the back of a sheet of clear glass using a combination of Canada balsam and beeswax. In this altered example, the photographic layer is now detached from the glass.
Esemplare alterato di Avoriotipo americano. Questo processo fu inventato da Frederick Wenderoth nel 1855 e consiste in una stampa positiva molto sottile, dipinta sul recto e fatta aderire in modo permanente ad un vetro sul lato esposto all'osservazione. L'adesivo era una miscela di balsamo di canadà e cera d'api. La produzione interessò una decina d'anni, fino circa al 1865, e fu prevalentemente praticata nell'area di Philadelphia.
Ivorytype from Chiesa-Gosio Collections, Brescia.

 

Luminous-lint has a gallery I found on pinterest - without a subscription i can only see one... Hope this link works!

@Figtree3 do you have membership?

 

I do have a Luminous-Lint membership. What do you want to know?

 

The workshop sounds like fun, too. Make your own ivorytype!

By the way, last night I found two different definitions of Ivorytype in one of the photo history books in my collection. There was a process patented in England in 1855 in which "photographic images were secured on the surface of artificial ivory sensitized with a coating of either albumen or collodion. When colored, these photographs resembled an ivory miniature portrait..." (William Welling, Collectors' Guide to Nineteenth-Century Photographs, p. 113).

Welling goes on to briefly describe another process which I think is the one here: "An American ivorytype process was introduced and exhibited for the first time by F. A. Wenderoth at the 1859 fair of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. By this and other competitive processes, a photograph could be colored and sealed in plate glass so as to exhibit the effect of an oil portrait when lighted from behind." (Ibid.)

I notice that the description given of Wenderoth's process doesn't mention two images adhered to the glass. It also mentions "other competitive processes." Perhaps one of those processes included the two images adhered to the glass. Welling's footnote for this info mentions The History of Photography by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim, p. 344. This is a well-known history. I don't have a copy of it. The note on the YouTube video indicates that Wenderoth's process was introduced in 1855, which is different from what Welling says. And I believe Welling got the info from the Gernsheim book.

Anyway, the year may not be too relevant in this case but could be researched.

 

Nothing, really, but I'll keep you in mind for future reference, if that's OK?

I noticed the pinterest link I inserted includes a gallery.

Since I knew the term, I tried googling "luminous-lint ivorytype" and got just one image.

I was just poking around, wondering if it gave values, but see now it's a VAST visual catalog of photographic history and technique. Well worth $8/mo.

 

Ivorytype is a new one to me.

 

Yes, it's well worth the cost. The Luminous-Lint site has been around a very long time and if you can believe it, L-L is a labor of love of one man. It used to be free, but a few years ago he started charging a subscription fee to get into the different sections in depth. There is some you can see without logging in. He has used images also that people post in the FB collector groups but always asks permission to use the images that others have scanned and posted. He has even used some of mine. He gives credit for whose collection it is. I know he does a lot of work on this site and the money he now collects helps him to keep it running.

As far as I can tell he doesn't "do" prices. It's really a historical compendium and well arranged by different topics, etc.

And yes, it's okay if you ask me about it in the future.

 

Thanks, @Figtree3 !