From: Anthony Farr
On 9 September 2011 02:09, John Sessoms <[email protected]> wrote:
Hand painted with tinting oils.
http://www.google.com/search?q=hand+tinted+photographs&hl=en&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=XOVoTtrPL5DPgAe99YjdDA&ved=0CC0QsAQ&biw=1415&bih=864
OR
http://preview.tinyurl.com/445vyhd
Probably Marshall's Retouching Oils.
http://www.reuels.com/reuels/Marshalls_Photo_Retouch_Photo_Tinting_Sets.html
Were Marshall's already in business in 1912, the postmark date on
Ann's postcard? I can't find any history of them at all.
Also, you should look at the postcard at 200% or more and you'll see
that the colouring is very sloppily applied and has bled or blotted
into the print. Remember that this isn't fine art, it's a cheap
postcard (or it was when it was new, anyway). The blotting and the
cheapness makes me think oils are an unlikely colouring medium because
it is "necessary to size the print first to prevent absorption of the
colours into the paper", if Wikipedia is to be trusted:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand-colouring_of_photographs
On the other hand, I've never retouched with oils, only dyes and
waxes. The waxes I used could leave a glossy finish because after
retouching you would apply a little heat (hot breath was usually
enough) to release the pigment into the emulsion, after which the
residual wax could be buffed away. But the postcard looks like it
was coloured with a wet medium (because of the bleeding), ruling out
wax I think.
I'm interested to learn if a high glaze can be maintained after
colouring with oils, because Ann remarked that the postcard was "very
glossy". Do the oils themselves dry glossy? Can they be buffed?
It could have been varnished, but I think unmounted paper, even if
double weight, varnished in 1912 would be showing cracks by now.
Dye or ink wash is still my guess, because they would penetrate well
into the emulsion and allow the print to be glazed after retouching.
I'm not certain that would be possible with oil or watercolour
retouching because they are surface treatments.
I'm not married to these ideas, so I'm willing to be proven mistaken.
regards, Anthony
I don't know the complete history of the company, but they've been
around quite a while. I believe they must have had competitors back in
the hey-day of hand tinting.
My instructor characterized them as the "only one left" in the business
today.
The colors came in several styles. There was the oil paint in a tube,
some waxy paints (dyes?) in little pots, and I've seen Marshall's colors
as pencils at one of the local camera stores. We only did the paints in
the tubes & the paints in the pots.
We didn't spend a whole lot of time on it, barely an introduction to the
possibilities.
Our instructor specified "glossy" prints for the lesson. I expect how
glossy the result is depends on how glossy the print that was started
with. My first print came a lab that had run out of glossy paper, so I
had it printed on Luster paper. My color results weren't as bright as
some of the other students, but that could be because I didn't use
enough color.
I expect there were varying levels of quality in the application.
Something like this that was mass produced, the "painter" probably had a
production quota and wasn't allowed to spend more than a minute on the
card.
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