Early photographs of coins in true original color...an 1887 Proof set? Could be.
magikbilly
Posts: 6,780 ✭
Hi All,
Imagine seeing a photo of an 1887 Proof set in its box taken in 1887!
Carrying over from the thread about the old viewer. I found an 1861 color photograph of a tartan ribbon. I know I have seen one of a medal and perhaps some coins. I am pretty sure I have. I will search. Until then, this 1861 color print of a tartan ribbon. From this you can extrapolate what such an image of a Proof set might look like! There may very well be one or more out there. I'd bet. I know this is nowhere near as impressive as the color plate in the other thread in terms of quality - but even at this level a photo of an 1870's Proof set would doubtless be of interest - but this is a color print from 1861 for goodness sakes.
For years I was swearing all over the place online that color photographs of the Mauretania and the Olympic - the great ocean liners - would surface (and what colors the funnels would be too down to pigment number). These images finally did about 2 years ago. Seems most (but not all
) including many other experts had the basic line colors totally wrong. I was hired to simulate a Lumiere Bros. 1907 Autochrome of the Lusitania on her maiden arrival 9.13.07 before this discovery which fooled many (and I got it right).
I may one day simulate what such a color plate of a Proof set would look like. I'd need a clear and fairly decent DPI scan of a (dipped or extremely clean) set in the box to start, from perhaps 1900-1919, with as little "modern" lighting as possible - just a "dead" photo - with just a little mirror or luster.
Tartan ribbon color photographic print 1861
Tartan Ribbon by Thomas Sutton, th first stable color print. 1861
Best wishes,
Eric
Imagine seeing a photo of an 1887 Proof set in its box taken in 1887!
Carrying over from the thread about the old viewer. I found an 1861 color photograph of a tartan ribbon. I know I have seen one of a medal and perhaps some coins. I am pretty sure I have. I will search. Until then, this 1861 color print of a tartan ribbon. From this you can extrapolate what such an image of a Proof set might look like! There may very well be one or more out there. I'd bet. I know this is nowhere near as impressive as the color plate in the other thread in terms of quality - but even at this level a photo of an 1870's Proof set would doubtless be of interest - but this is a color print from 1861 for goodness sakes.
For years I was swearing all over the place online that color photographs of the Mauretania and the Olympic - the great ocean liners - would surface (and what colors the funnels would be too down to pigment number). These images finally did about 2 years ago. Seems most (but not all
) including many other experts had the basic line colors totally wrong. I was hired to simulate a Lumiere Bros. 1907 Autochrome of the Lusitania on her maiden arrival 9.13.07 before this discovery which fooled many (and I got it right). I may one day simulate what such a color plate of a Proof set would look like. I'd need a clear and fairly decent DPI scan of a (dipped or extremely clean) set in the box to start, from perhaps 1900-1919, with as little "modern" lighting as possible - just a "dead" photo - with just a little mirror or luster.
Tartan ribbon color photographic print 1861
Tartan Ribbon by Thomas Sutton, th first stable color print. 1861
Best wishes,
Eric
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Rob
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Ricko - I know I saw one with coins and a mirror or something. Still looking. Imagine an early "true-view" full blown Autochrome like the Russian image linked in the thread about the viewer. It is unreasonable to think any were taken to begin with? The technology was there it seems. Is it unreasonable to expect one to survive/surface - would it likely have been discarded as worthless? Many of the UK ones that might have reduced the chances of finding one of the great liners I mentioned could have been possibly been used in the manufacture of gas masks for example for WW1, as so many were.
Best wishes,
Eric
When the autochrome was first introduced (it is actually a color slide process using tiny grains of photosensitive potato starch mounted between two sheets of glass) some said the images couldn't be reproduced in print. Within a few months Alfred Stieglitz proved them wrong when he reproduced autochromes by Eduard Steichen in an edition of CAMERA WORK.
The Lumiere Bros. sold about 35 million autochrome plates between 1907 and 1935. Unfortunately, their survival rate is low. Unless they were carefully stored they were prone to mold and mildew damage. Most of Eduard Steichen's extensive autochrome work produced between 1907 and 1914 was lost when he left them in storage at the house he rented in France and returned to the US at the start of World War I.
Other experimental color processes were in use before 1907. Did anyone take color photos of coins? I don't know ... but I would like to.
Note: Apparently one of the largest collections of autochromes is held by the National Geographic Society.
<< <i>The tartan ribbon color photo was apparently the result of a chemical mixing error. >>
I was of the impression this image was not actually printed until much later. When it was first produced it could only be viewed by simultaneously projecting three negatives through different colored glass.
Eric