Eggs and gum

TERRY KING (101522.2625@compuserve.com)
17 Feb 96 19:55:32 EST

Klaus Pollmeier wrote asking whether the use of egg in gum printing led to
yellowing and cracking of the image.

I used denatured egg some years ago to make gum prints using strong colours. It
works well, looks good and can be substituted for gum arabic or gloy. It
produces good continuous tone and sharp detail from continuous tone negatives.
It has a slightly shinier surface than gloy whereas gum arabic tends towards the
matt.

I have had no problems with yellowing either with the silver chloride/arrowroot
albumen prints I have made, or with the gum dichromate albumen prints. On some
very small prints the shininess was obtrusive but they were only made to be
rephotographed
I have noticed no flaking with these prints.

I also have some albumen prints dating from the 1850s and 1860s, including one
of Prague, which has a Perrutz shop under an arcade. I like to think that it
sold photographic goods. Some of these prints have yellowed, I assume from
improper fixing, but the others look as if they were made yesterday. There has
been no flaking.

I have also made prints with whole egg but, as Peter Frederick says, they need a
plasticised surface to the paper. I found that they printed quite well from
continuous tone negatives but were subject to the same kind of flaking that one
gets if one's pigment has been applied too thickly to a conventional gum print.
I have found no trace of yellowing. My experience was that there was no
advantage in using the whole egg especially as I prefer the tactility of
straight water-colour paper.

Terry King