Collodion Positives - Cheap Portraits on Glass

Frederick Scott Archer's collodion 'wet plate' process produced a glass negative which could make an unlimited number of prints on paper. However, most customers were seeking a cheap alternative to the handsome daguerreotype portrait, which came protected under glass in a metal frame and presented in a velvet-lined, leather-bound display case. Scott Archer soon realised that by underexposing the collodion glass negative and placing it on a black background, the image took on the appearance of a positive picture.The resulting image was as sharp and clear as a daguerreotype, yet Archer's new process was cheaper and less complicated. Furthermore, the collodion positive process was incredibly quick to perform. Photographers could see immediately the commercial possibilities of a cheap and speedy method of taking portraits. The "collodion positive" photograph on glass could be backed with black paper, very dark varnish or provided with a background of black velvet or similar dark cloth. Protected by glass, placed in a metal frame and inserted in a presentation case or an elaborate frame, the collodion positive was an inexpensive substitute for the daguerreotype portrait, which in the 1840s had been the preserve of the nobility and the wealthy middle classes of society.

 

A Portrait of a Bearded Man. A collodion positive photograph on glass taken by George Ruff senior (c1858). The presentation case is similar to the ones that held daguerreotype portraits.



William Lane of Brighton was promoting the new process of making "portraits and views taken on glass" as early as September 1852. In an advertisement placed in The Times, dated 10th September 1852, Lane claimed that "any person can produce in a few seconds, at a trifling expense, truly life-like portraits."
Early in 1853, William Lane's Cheap Photographic Depot was offering a "complete set of apparatus for the glass or paper process" for the sum of 4 guineas (£4. 4s/£4.20p). By October 1853, The Royal Chain Pier Photographic Rooms in Brighton were advertising "Portraits superior to engravings by the new process on glass."

On 3rd August 1854, Grey & Hall's Photographic Institution on St James Street announced they had "completed arrangements for taking portraits by all the most recent and improved processes, by License of the Patentees". In addition to Talbotype portraits and "Daguerreotypes warranted to last," Grey and Hall offered to make "Coloured Collodion Positives by a new and peculiar process" for the sum of 15 shillings (75p).

Stephen Grey and William Hall were keen to emphasize that their new methods of taking portraits were "licensed by the Patentees". Archer had not patented his invention and Beard's daguerreotype patent had expired the year before, but William Henry Fox Talbot claimed that the "collodion process" was covered by his earlier patent which had described a negative/positive system of photography.

In 1854, W.H.Fox Talbot took legal action against the studio of Silvester Laroche,the professional name of Martin Laroche, a London photographer who had started to use Archer's "wet collodion" technique in 1853. Silvester Laroche went to court to defend his right to use the "wet plate" process. In December 1854, Laroche was found not guilty of infringing Talbot's patent rights and as a result of this legal judgement all photography was now free from restriction.

In the summer of 1855, James Henderson, a photographic artist who had previously operated portrait studios in London's Strand and Regent Street, opened a photographic studio at No 5, Colonnade in New Road, Brighton. In an advertisement dated 4th August 1855, James Henderson offered to take "Photographic Portraits, on Paper, Silver, and Glass Plates . . . Prices from 10s 6d and upwards." In this newspaper advertisement, Henderson "begs to remind all lovers of Photography that he has been at considerable expense in defending the freedom of this beautiful art against Mr Fox Talbot, the Patentee of the Talbotype process." Earlier, in May 1854, Talbot had obtained an injunction which restrained Henderson from making and selling photographic portraits by the collodion process. Laroche's successful defence against Talbot's legal action meant that Henderson and other photographers in Brighton were free to produce portraits using any of the main photographic processes.

 

 

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Website last updated: 23 December, 2002

 

This website is dedicated to the memory of Arthur T. Gill (1915-1987), Sussex Photohistorian

 




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