Hi Gail,
I do the same thing. If a site goes to Acrobat, I shut it down. I gave the
software many chances... still don't like it.
A very good question... I don't mind answering about my usage of the word
restoration.
Three definitions of restoration from my old gigantic Webster's Dictionary.
LOL! Dusting the book off. Only for you Gail will I dust today!
1. A restoring or being restored.
2. A putting or bringing back into a former, normal, or unimpaired state or
condition.
3. A representation of the original form or structure. Reconstruction.
Syn. replacement, re-established, renovation, reinstatement, revival,
recovery. A modern word in the recording industry is digitally remastered.
YUCK! My son gave me a CD for Christmas that wasn't digitally remastered.
Sounded like 1960s AM radio. Only gift I have ever returned!
The problems with the originals images is that they are in such poor
condition.. Water stains, age stains, chipped pages, torn pages, color
faded 75% of the time, people writing on the pages, etc. If you could see
the condition of some of these images in their raw form, you would say a
prayer over them and never touch them. Now some of our collections are in
excellent conditions: 19th Century French Peasants book, Bon Ton collection,
my recent purchases of the French play costume renderings collection, and
the 1814 British occupations books. The 1814 book was made exclusively for a
wealthy person in England, and had been in a family collection for years.
But I purchased all these at top dollar for my budget. Those purchases are
rare for me but I believe their contents will greatly help our website
visitors. I actually purchased them more for the subject matter than the
condition of the images. Those images need very little work and are more
from an organizational project that cleaning the graphics. Go on eBay and
see how much the Bon Ton images starting bids are.
I will pay high end for certain topics. The money spent on one high-end
collection, I could have purchased several other collections in not-so-good
condition. Now high end for me, is definitely not what high-end for the art
world. Sometimes, I will see these items on eBay and they have no bids
because the starting price is too high. I then privately write the dealers
or private owner and ask if they can pull the auction and sell to me
privately. I explain to the dealer my purpose for needing the collection or
book and let them see my online Library. I feel that I am saving a
collection that is being split up and sold individually. I can present the
collection as a whole. This was the case of the 1814 British collection.
The dealer took book apart and was selling them individually. After
explaining to him and that I want to save the collection, he came way down
off his eBay price and sold me the entire collection. Not only did he sent
me the plates, but he included the book's description pages of the
occupations. Those pages would have probably ended up in the garbage. What
a wonderful soul he is for wanting to sell it as a collection to me. It
took a lot of emails to convince him that the entire collection needed
saving. As for the French plays renderings... I saw two of these plates on
eBay. I wrote the dealer and asked if she had more like it. She had a
collection of a couple of hundred of renderings that this artist did for the
plays and some for fashion designers. She wanted in the thousands for it.
No way! I'm not rich. She gave me an option to purchase the theatrical or
fashion designer collections at a lower price. I love the designers, but
couldn't pass up the theater. So the fashion designer collection was broken
up and sold individually. Made me feel like I had Sophie's Choice. Which
child do I love more?
When our images in sad condition are repainted, our first step is to make a
palette of the colors on the images. Sometimes we do not need to repaint
the entire image. But a majority of the pre-1870 images need to be
partially or completely repainted. The worse years for bad paint jobs in
the books were the 1830-1860s. I have one sad-looking lady (my images are
called ladies, men, or children) that I have been working on back and forth
for a year. The original painting is so messed up. Kimiko worked on the
majority of 1838 images for me. She can testify as to how bad those images
really looked. I scanned the illustration pages and photocopied the text
pages of that book then put it back on the shelf. It will probably never be
open again as long as I own it. When Kim worked on each image, she had a
full description of each costume. The original scans are at a high
resolution to try to pick up the original colors as much as possible.
Believe me when you are repainting these images, you get to a point you want
to pull your hair out. The originals are in such bad condition. You just
have to get away from it for a few days. When an image is complete, we are
on top of the world. It is such a wonderful feeling to completed an image,
as the description's author had intended for it to look like. YIPPEE!
After 160 something years later, the author's vision has been fulfilled!
Other problems occur with these illustrations in the book. The ink in the
type in the books have bleed through on the images. The type letter were
struck so hard that the ink or impression would go through to the image.
When you scan these problem images, the ink or impression shows up in the
scan. These problems even hurt the b&w images. So we have to clean that up
too. This happened so much in these 1838 images. Being a teacher I learned
to read students work upside down or backwards. On a few of these images, I
could read the entire corresponding text page *backwards* on the color
fashion plates. Want to hear our graphics people grip... work on one of
those images! You have to take lots of breaks!
When I decided to start this repainting or restoration project of fashion
plates, was when I went to the London Gallery and saw a very popular
painting. I have forgotten the name of it, but it is the medieval pregnant
woman and the man in the beaver hat. I was so-o-o disappointed to see the
original, that I almost cried. The oil paint was so cracked and was badly
in need of restoration. I thought please just put it in a safe place out of
the light to preserve it.
If our images were being presented as a piece of artwork or for reselling
the actual fashion plates, I could see showing the original scans. But our
goal is education of past fashions. I believe people would like to see the
details of the costumes and previously didn't even notice them because a
painter of the time did a poor job. Our graphic artist who have worked on
these images can tell you how frustrating it is to have a dress described in
the text as having blue skirt with violet trim and the trim was painted
yellow. Or if that dress had a violet sash and it was painted over green
because the painter was in a hurry to be paid by piecework. I truly don't
believe that the intentions the fashion author was to have these goofs or
they would have printed the descriptions as they did. The problem why these
goofs were allowed was because these magazines were very popular and I think
they needed to speed up production time. The ladies who painted the plates
needed the money and were paid by piece. To get more pieces done *some* did
sloppy work. Prior to this period the fashion plates painting was so much
better. But not as many people had access to these publications, so the
demand was low. The painter could take their time.
Generally when the painter took their time, their is a big difference in the
quality of the images. This is so true in the original renderings of the
French plays. My lot contains the original costume designer's renderings
for these plays. They are SO beautiful it is unreal! Going on memory, but
I think there are about 20 plays represented in the collection. Each sheet
has app. five costume renderings. FYI, the bulk of the work behind this
project will be the research. I am not that familiar with French plays of
that period. I do recognize some of the actresses' names, but I want the
homework done before they go on the web. I will spend little time working on
the images on the computer because of their excellent condition.
The amount of research that goes behind these projects can go on for years.
I can't even try to guess the amount of research projects that are
on-going. Even when they are on the web, the research continues. Costume
research is like genealogy, you turn over one stone and then the next one
needs turning over. And then, Oh my goodness, you find a skeleton under all
those stones. That leads you to a whole new train of thought.
My newest venture is a computer drawing tablet (WACOM to the computer
Geeks). I have wanted one since I first saw it at a publishing house in
1996. My husband got me one for Christmas!!! I won't touch tablet until I
have read the manual. It looks so promising for speeding up the time we use
on images. That leads me to technology....
Once you move into the 20th Century, the printing technology became so much
better. The 20th Century images take far less of our time to work on
compared to the 19th Century. The 20th Century image colors aren't as
faded, the description generally matches the fashion in the plate. The
machine print image details are more defined than the 19th Century
hand-painted.
LOL! Back to the CD being digitally remastered from the beginning of the
message. Compare what we do to what the music industry is doing to old
recordings. I don't want to call what we do to the images as digitally
remastering.... don't think I have mastered but a couple of thinks in my
life but giving birth to only male children, and collecting dust. Those
things I have mastered!
Penny E. Ladnier
Owner,
The Costume Gallery, www.costumegallery.com
Costume Classroom, www.costumeclassroom.com
Costume Research Library, www.costumelibrary.com
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