Sandy,
I may overstated my case. However, Emerson's tonalities are much different
that the later Sessionist's, that is his are much higher in key. I have seen
many and I have an Emerson Norfolk Broad print in my own collection which I
just dragged out for a looksee. My comments on longer tonal scale have to do
with contemporary work. I have seen 19th Century vintage work that had
fairly good tonal scale such as Johnston & Hoffmann's British India prints.
Not having any vintage platinum paper to try out, I'm not sure what range of
scale it was really capable of producing. My guess is that the J&H prints
were handcoated as they are on very heavy stock, and if made in India and
due to the climate, handcoating would have made sense. The point is that
store bought paper of that time may have had its limitations. My suspicions
are that it had lots of lead and very little platinum, the lead being
removed in the clearing process leaving the platinum, thus essentially a
method of making prints with a minimum of platinum loss. The quality of
Emerson's prints may have had more to do with the paper that was available
then by choice.
Nontheless, your point is well taken. I would like to note that because one
is influenced by the art of the time, that this may not be necessarily
imitation. Not everyone making a straight full tonal range print is
imitating Ansel.
Dick