Re: Old Postcard Silver Patina

From: fb ^lt;aikus2@freestart.hu>
Date: 01/07/06-01:45:10 AM Z
Message-id: <43BF7F96.31019.2BEC950@aikus2.freestart.hu>

Judy,

Some type of toners can conservate the silver
against degradation (gold, platinum, selenium.
etc.) The winner (about the opinion of the big
science) always changing. As I know the latest
champion the sulphur toner.

Its funny because the sulphur the main silver
killer and the main guilty in the silver
degradation crime,

Bálint

Date sent: Sat, 07 Jan 2006 00:08:33 -0500 (EST)
From: Judy Seigel <jseigel@panix.com>
Subject: Re: Old Postcard Silver Patina
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Send reply to: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca

>
> For several years I toned most of my prints with a chemical toner that
> "plated out" silver gelatin emulsion to that silvery look, which I was
> very very fond of. So naturally when I found (what I called) "plating
> out" on old photos at flea markets & photo fairs I snapped them up --
> usually bargains because they were considered "damaged."
>
> These were not just, or even primarily, photo post cards, tho some of them
> too, but all sorts of prints, from a souvenir photo of the Lincoln
> Memorial mounted on cardboard to A.T. Bartels "Manufacturing Furrier, Fur
> Garments of All Kinds Made To Order", shown with the staff ranked at the
> door, undated but with the notation "Mrs. Dan Wolfe, Earlville, Ill."
>
> In some, the "white" background has darkened to almost ochre and the
> silvery part gotten a distinctly blue sheen, for an especially fine
> effect. To me, removing that patina would be error close to vandalism,
> though obviously (to quote Johnny Lock) "All men are liable to error; and
> most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to
> it." (Needless to say, if Locke had been writing in 2004 instead of 1690
> that would have been "all persons.")
>
> In my observation, the patina hasn't changed a lot in maybe 20 years, even
> a few just propped up on the counter, exposed 24/7 to NYC air -- I suspect
> the coating isn't all that reactive. I've also seen edges of prints
> covered by overmats which hadn't patina-ed, & therefore surmise that it
> didn't happen, or not as readily, in the dark. (The print was under glass,
> so I figure it wasn't primarily the air.)
>
> On the other hand, the "Bartels" print, dark when I got it, has darkened
> more, losing some of the shine. Tho that could be because it's glued hard
> & fast onto black card with who knows what for paste.
>
> Prints in those boxes of loose prints from the 1930s & later sometimes
> show the effect, too -- but I find the effect less compelling.
>
> Judy
Received on Sat Jan 7 01:45:24 2006

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