Albumen Prints
Albumen prints were a major nineteenth century photographic development in printing positive prints of high quality. Its discovery in 1850 followed experimentation with a number of less successful approaches.
The photographic process known as Salted Paper Prints was developed in 1834 by William Henry Fox Talbot, an Englishman. The process, though revolutionary for its time, had its limitations due to the use of paper for the negative and also for the printed image. The use of a paper negative meant that the final image when printed would lack tonal range and definition.
Developments in the manufacture of negatives needed to be made to ensure a final positive image of a higher quality. Glass seemed the obvious choice and experiments were made using this medium. The glass itself and the necessary chemicals were not a problem. The key challenge was how to get these chemicals to stick to the surface of the glass. Various experiments were carried out with little success, one account even states that snail slime was tried but proved useless.
The first successful glass negatives were produced in 1848 in France by Abel Niepce. The glass plates were covered in a solution of salted egg white and potassium iodide. The negative was dried and then sensitized with silver nitrate. After exposure the image was developed using gallic acid. This method produced negatives with images, which could be printed showing much greater detail and tonal range, a significant development. There was still one major draw back to overcome. The exposure time was far too long, in some cases up to 15 minutes. Because of this it was mainly used for still life work and for photographing objects that did not move. The prints were still somewhat flat in appearance due to the use of salted paper as a printing medium.
In 1850 Frenchman Louis Desire Blanquart Everard invented albumen photographic paper for printing positive images. This new type of paper was coated in a mixture of egg whites and ammonium chloride. It was then allowed to dry and could be kept for later use. The paper was sensitized in a bath of silver nitrate and then developed using pyrogallic acid. When this paper was printed using the albumen glass negative the result was much sharper images with greater tonal quality. This was due mainly to the fact that the chemicals used and the fact that the image was on the surface of the paper rather than embedded in the paper as with the salt print.
The news of development of the new paper soon spread and it was quickly taken to England by John Mayall. Though initially not appreciated by photographers of the day due to its glossy appearance, the format become widely used both in England and around the world in a very short space of time. The albumen print remained in use until the end of the 19th century when gelatin silver paper took over as the preferred printing medium.
Albumen prints turn up in vast numbers and some are highly sought after by collectors. As with all forms of photographic images the price a collector can expect to pay will depend on the photographer, condition and subject matter. Prices can range from as little as a few dollars to many thousands.
Reference note by p4A.com Contributing Editor Robert M. Ginns.