I just received some paper mail that supports what you posted as follows:
On Mon, 12 Jan 1998, Sandy King wrote:
>
> Last week I promised to post the results of the analysis of a piece of
> unprocessed Fresson paper. As I mentioned, the analysis was made on a piece
> of paper manufactured in the 1940s or early 50s. The information was given
> to me in the early 80s. Based on the stated source of the information and
> the credentials of the person who gave me the information I believe it to
> be accurate and correct. The paper from which this analysis was made is of
> a very deep, neutral black color.
>
> According to the analysis, the Fresson paper in question consisted of the
> following, in this order:
> 1. a paper base, followed by
> 2. a thin coating of soft gelatin with a relatively thin black pigment
> dispersion, with a slight cool, ultramarine tone, followed by
> 3. a thicker layer of gelatin, harder than the first, with no pigment,
> followed by
> 4. a powdering of a very fine, dry pigment
>
> Hope this information proves interesting to some of you.
>
> Sandy King
Sandy,
I thought you would be interested in knowing about a letter I just
received from Bill Foster (former Fresson printer; he knew Jose
Ortiz-Echaque personally and to the extent that they traveled and
photographed together).
A portion of Bill Foster's letter follows:
"and to see that this Sandy King had discovered some more info on the
nature of the coatings in the 1980's." . . . . . "but I must quote what
Echague wrote me in the 1970's about the process, I quote(translation);
letter extract. "on the other hand I have only prepared "Fresson" for
myself, the machine, indispensable to manufacture the paper, which has
four coatings, one in gelatin and three in colored gelatine, and I think
that Mns.Fresson still has a machine.""
He goes on to write that this machine is the one that Nadeau ultimately
purchased and moved to Canada. Keep in mind that this is still hearsay but
it is interesting to note that though slightly different than your
analysis it is surprisingly similar. If one assumes that the raw paper is
first coated with a base layer of white pigmented gelatin and that Ortiz
was not giving the exact order in which the layers went down then the two
descriptions could both be of the same process/material.
One other significant comment from Bill Foster is that after Oritz-Echague
bought the machine he seemed to produce very few prints due to; being 80
plus years old OR was his homemade paper not up to the standard of
"Fresson Paper". I personally wonder if the process and/or machine were
incomplete.
I hope that the analytical work in progress will provide some new and
valuable information.
Sincerely, Art
Art Chakalis
Columbus, Ohio, USA