Re: Luis Nadeau Answers Chris's questions

[Sandy King <sanking@clemson.edu>]

At 11:14 AM +0100 5/27/07, John Grocott wrote:
> But not, I think, if someone else gets there, 
> first?   Luis was saying the same thing years 
> ago. Do we wait with bated breath while he makes 
> up his mind?
> What would be sold to the highest bidder? The 
> outline of a  secret formula for coating 
> gelatine etc., onto paper?
>                                             In 
> your dreams !  Kindly thanks to Luis for the 
> very interesting and helpful information he has 
> gathered and is selling in his publications.
>                     John - Photographist-London - UK


Assuming that Ortiz-Echagüe did indeed get the 
right formula from the Fresson family, and that 
he did indeed pass this formula on to Luis 
Nadeau, which I guess he could authenticate, what 
Luis has to sell is a  real Fresson formula and 
working procedures for coating papers with it. 
That it, it is not a direct carbon process that 
works like Fresson, but the real deal. That might 
have some real value if it could be made into a 
print making system.

It has always seemed to me that the mystique of 
Fresson is almost entirely due  to the fact that 
the prints are made by members of the Fresson 
family using a proprietary printing method that 
around a century old. Even if one were able to 
manufacture a direct carbon type paper that is 
superior to Fresson it still would not be a 
Fresson.

On that score, gum bichromate prints are in the 
same family as direct carbon. The color gum 
prints made by a number of contemporary workers 
are technically much superior to color prints 
made by Fresson, IMHO. But there are still many 
people who would prefer to own a real Fresson.

Sandy King