Was I kid you not, new alt process, now Varnishes

> Did the "stuff" by any chance give the formula? When was it? If you have
> the formula, I suppose you can name your price ! If not, literature of
> the period often mentions Soehnee... I even find it in an early "materials
> of the artists" book... They go so far as to say it's "a resin." Duh!
>
> I know it's almost certainly mostly shellac because it's thinned with
> alcohol. I assume, however, that it has some extra ingredients, because
> ....they wouldn't just bottle shellac, not even "French shellac" and sell
> it under a brand name. Would they?
> J.

As soon as I read the stuff, as there are many pages on varnish, I will post
the info. If it is worth the article, I'll send a copy to you. However, my
bet is that after I plow thru the pages of formulae it will say something
like "this is similar to soehnee". Suffice it to say, varnish in the 1860's
was a biggie, because everyone was varnishing their glass plate negs, and
then experiencing problems with yellowing and bubbling and such. This is a
very cursory read, but when I hit upon the first varnish article thinking I
had come upon gold (1867), copied it, then a whole bunch more appeared in
those years 1867-8. I have 1860-1 on microfilm, and then the collection is
void in 1862-5, then picks up again every year thereafter. I do remember
that the problem of cracking was alleviated by the addition of some oil to
the original mix.
Chris
Received on Mon Jan 19 08:49:44 2004