1886 Glass Silver bromide

[DAVE SMITH]

I was at an antiques warehouse a few weeks back and I came across this old photo with the original newspaper pressed against the back. It was in a frame but it had plenty of woodworm working its way round the sides.
I took the glass out to inspect and the paper was in the back. I only paid £10 pounds for it. I was wondering if anyone could tell me a bit about this process. Am I right thinking its called a Silver Bromide?it appears that the image is just sitting on the glass. In some areas you can see that they could not get detailed bright highlights and that they at to resort to touching iin with a brush, like you see on the button area. If Mike ,Danny, Doug or any other Photographers/enthusiasts looking in could explain this antique glass panel I would be grateful? The detail on the face is incredible. The glass is a dense white opal all the way through.
Thanks
Dave

[Kelly Thorson]

Dry (Glass) Plates
A negative process employing an emulsion of gelatin and silver bromide. The emulsion is prepared by chemically forming silver bromide in the gelatin, "ripening" the mixture by heat to increase its sensitivity, and then removing the chemical by-products by washing. This emulsion is coated onto glass and then dried. After exposure, the dry plate is developed in an alkaline developer, not in an acidic one like those used for calotypes and wet-collodion negatives. This development (called "chemical" development) converts the silver bromide particles that have been altered by exposure to light (but not reduced to elemental silver) into silver particles. The first successful (but crude) dry silver bromide images on glass were announced by the British photomicrographer _ Richard Leach Maddox in 1871. Previous experiments in making a silver bromide-collodion emulsion in the mid-1860s reached a perfected stage in the late 1870s through the work of W.B. Bolton, but never achieved the sensitivity of wet-collodion plates. Although these dry collodion emulsion plates were convenient, they were less sensitive than wet-collodion plates, which also had to be prepared by the photographer. Reliable dry (gelatin) plates of a serviceable sensitivity were not available from manufacturers until 1878 when Wratten and Wainwright of London first successfully marketed their plates

This was cut and pasted from Joseph Bellows Gallery

There is some very interesting explanations of different techniques in his glossary. I remembered stumbling across this and being somewhat intrigued when looking for information on daguerreotype images. Thanks for the visual to go with it...that always helps.

[Danny Baronian]

Dave,

your print was most likely made by coating glass plates with a sliver nitrate or silver halide solution. The glass plates were at first prepared by the photographer himself mixing up the chemicals and plating the glass. When the plates were exposed and processed you ended up with a negative of the scene.

The image you display looks to be 11 x 14 which would also be the size of the camera since it was made as a contact print, not an enlargement.

The print is most likely sensitized with platinum. The reason for platinum was the image would last indefinetly when exhibited in a room with sunlight. Silver nitrate or silver halide solutions will deteorite much as a solution gilded mirror. Platinum would also not need to be backed up, as shown in your glass. Glass negatives on the other hand had to be stored in boxes in the dark, otherwise the image would eventually fade.

Platinum paper prints are still made today in much the same way, using paper as the medium for the print. The photographer mixes his own chemicals, coats the paper, enlarges and makes the print.

Such a print today, processed under archival standards could last in excess of 300 years. The areas the highlights appearing blown are probably from mishandling at some point, as old glass plates had a tonal range that cellulose film rarely attain - the ability to get good tone in the blackest black, discernible detail in the brightest white.

Have you shown this to any art dealers? At £10 you made a good find! Unless there a large quantity of this type of print, you may have something valuable. But then again it's nice to hold onto and enjoy with all your other glass work!

Here is an example of a photo made from glass plates we donated to the San Francisco Historical Society:

https://handletteringforum.com/forum ... =milk#2941

I wish I'd kept more. There were photos from the 1800's of Half Dome and photos from around San Francisco Bay before any of the bridges were built.

[DAVE SMITH]

Thanks for the information Kelly and Danny, you have explains this process very well. Im not thinking about doing any of this type of work ,just interested to know what I have here. I struggle to get a decent shot from my digital camera let aloan make a silver bromide. Thanks guys very interesting.
Dave

[Roderick Treece]

Dave,
What a find.I inherited about 50 small glass negitives from my grandfather Delbert "Bud" Higgins 30 years ago and I am getting ready to donate them to a local county archive.It's truly a thing of beutity to see something so old,of such modern tecnology for the time.

You think the guy would have cleaned his ears before setting for the photo.

Roderick