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Glass Plate Positives


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Can anyone help with the type of process used to produce these positive glass plates? I’ve been asked to have a go at printing them (when told they were negatives), but I’ll scan them instead. They appear to be two sheets of glass sandwiched together, with the positive emulsion side in the middle. Taken in Italy, not sure when, can anyone advise? They are about 80mm square, and in a cardboard box marked ‘Tensi Diapositive’. One or two of them look of great quality, nice and contrasty with superb shadow detail. Wish my negs looked this good!

 

I'll post a scan once I've done one. Thanks

 

20220901_171024.jpg.03857e736e106f8eebbad2245b5a02d3.jpg

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Are they correct from right to left when looking through the base side of the film? If so, then they were probably reversal processed. If correct from left to right when looking through the emulsion side then they were printed, similar to how prints of movies shown in a theater are made.
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I have a "Kodak Direct Positive Film Developing Outfit", which was made some years ago

to reversal process either a special film or Panatomic-X.

 

It is slightly trickier than color reversal. In the latter case, all the silver is removed after

the color image is formed.

 

For black and white, the negative silver image formed in the first developer has to be

removed, while the second one is not. It should work as well on glass plates,

as on acetate film.

 

But as above, I suspect that the ones you have were printed from negatives,

either contact prints or enlargements.

-- glen

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Diapositive

'Diapositive' is an old term for slide, as in projection slide, or 'lantern slide'

 

Many of these were of international tourist sights and sold commercially for home or travelling entertainment. These would have been reproduced from negatives in hundreds or thousands.

 

Others were directly reversal processed by amateurs for personal use. The hand lettering on your example would suggest it's amateur produced, or made by an individual to accompany lectures or a small touring show.

 

Whichever. Glass plates - 'dry plates' - were readily available from 1880 right up until the 1950s, after which time they were gradually dropped from popular sale, although still available to special order for a decade or so after.

 

Basically, they're just the same as a film emulsion, but coated on thin glass.

Collodion, Ambrotype and Tintype plates were hardly ever used as projection slides. What you've got almost certainly dates from the late 19th century to perhaps just prior to WWI, and is taken on commercially produced dry plate stock.

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Well, not quite that far back, but it used to be that you could buy sets of 35mm slides in the usual tourist attractions.

 

I mostly didn't buy them, though.

 

As digital cameras got popular, though, the usual places stopped selling them,

presumably selling the stock off for clearance prices. If I was there at the

right time, I might have bought some.

 

I did, though, not long ago buy a set of Rome and Vatican slides from Goodwill.

-- glen

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'Diapositive' is an old term for slide, as in projection slide, or 'lantern slide'

 

Many of these were of international tourist sights and sold commercially for home or travelling entertainment. These would have been reproduced from negatives in hundreds or thousands.

 

Others were directly reversal processed by amateurs for personal use. The hand lettering on your example would suggest it's amateur produced, or made by an individual to accompany lectures or a small touring show.

 

Whichever. Glass plates - 'dry plates' - were readily available from 1880 right up until the 1950s, after which time they were gradually dropped from popular sale, although still available to special order for a decade or so after.

 

Basically, they're just the same as a film emulsion, but coated on thin glass.

Collodion, Ambrotype and Tintype plates were hardly ever used as projection slides. What you've got almost certainly dates from the late 19th century to perhaps just prior to WWI, and is taken on commercially produced dry plate stock.

 

Thanks Joe for the additional info, which I can pass on to the owner. One or two have type face lettering on the bottom (see attached) and this would suggest the mass produced variety. Although, the hand writing (generally something like - Edizione ANDERSON via Giorgio Arceola - Napoli (then the location) suggests to me they were taken by one Giorgio Arceola for a Mr or Mrs Anderson, so perhaps I have some of each, but the generic ones are 'badged up' by Girgio Arceola. I found another of Giorgio's photos on line.

Anyway all helpful stuff, so thanks.

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Are they correct from right to left when looking through the base side of the film? If so, then they were probably reversal processed. If correct from left to right when looking through the emulsion side then they were printed, similar to how prints of movies shown in a theater are made.

 

Thanks JG. From what I can tell from pictures I can find on line of the same scenes, they are correct viewed from the emulsion side, so presumably reversal processed.

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Thanks JG. From what I can tell from pictures I can find on line of the same scenes, they are correct viewed from the emulsion side, so presumably reversal processed.

 

Correct when viewed from the emulsion side is not the one for reversal processed.

That is the one for contact or enlarger printed.

 

It was usual for bought mass market slides to be the wrong way, such that emulsion faced away from the projector lens.

(Assuming you could tell from the image which way it went.)

-- glen

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These are called Lantern Slides. These were popular - On glass black and white photo emulsion exposed in camera or exposed from negative onto silver salt emulsion via an enlarger. Look up Lantern Slide.

 

Thanks Alan, that helped a lot. Not sure why I didn't make that link myself, but saved me some searching!

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'Diapositive' is an old term for slide, as in projection slide, or 'lantern slide'

 

Many of these were of international tourist sights and sold commercially for home or travelling entertainment. These would have been reproduced from negatives in hundreds or thousands.

 

Others were directly reversal processed by amateurs for personal use. The hand lettering on your example would suggest it's amateur produced, or made by an individual to accompany lectures or a small touring show.

 

Whichever. Glass plates - 'dry plates' - were readily available from 1880 right up until the 1950s, after which time they were gradually dropped from popular sale, although still available to special order for a decade or so after.

 

Basically, they're just the same as a film emulsion, but coated on thin glass.

Collodion, Ambrotype and Tintype plates were hardly ever used as projection slides. What you've got almost certainly dates from the late 19th century to perhaps just prior to WWI, and is taken on commercially produced dry plate stock.

I'll write this all out again, as I had the dreaded 'you can't post this for 318 seconds' warning!

 

Thanks for all the extra info, I can pass this on to the owner. I think I have both the generic types and some private images. There are one or two hand tinted colour ones with873735123_EDIZIONEANDERSON-NAPOLI(Italia)viaGiorgioArcoleo6a-6b-NAPOLILaSolfatara.thumb.jpg.13bc92e859abb6e00b7a4f851fea817c.jpg type face lettering on them suggesting the former, but the hand written descriptions read, in general, something like this: Edizione ANDERSON via Giorgio Arceola - NAPOLI (then the location).

 

Suggests to me they were taken by one Giorgio Arceola for a Mr and Mrs Anderson, who perhaps were doing 'The Grand Tour'?

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I'll write this all out again, as I had the dreaded 'you can't post this for 318 seconds' warning!

 

 

(snip)

 

Keep trying, and eventually it goes through. The times don't seem to make much sense.

 

Also, as I just found in another thread, the 15 minute limit for editing is actually variable,

and goes up and down. I was sure it was less than 15 minutes, and a few second

later it changed to 5 minutes.

 

And also, when posting an image, it will sometimes randomly say it is too big.

-- glen

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Well, not quite that far back, but it used to be that you could buy sets of 35mm slides in the usual tourist attractions.

 

I mostly didn't buy them, though.

 

As digital cameras got popular, though, the usual places stopped selling them,

presumably selling the stock off for clearance prices. If I was there at the

right time, I might have bought some.

 

I did, though, not long ago buy a set of Rome and Vatican slides from Goodwill.

Sadly, I'm old enough to remember those, hanging in plastic see-through pouches in sea-front shops!

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Sadly, I'm old enough to remember those, hanging in plastic see-through pouches in sea-front shops!

 

 

I was mostly remembering them from National Parks, but other tourist attractions, too.

 

I have a Super-8 projector that I wanted to test.

I found on eBay a Super-8 movie of the Gemini 4 space walk.

Maybe it used to be sold by NASA in their gift shop.

 

Should be fun. (Not quite as old as yours, though.)

-- glen

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via Giorgio Arceola

If it literally says "via", then that's Italian for "way" or "road". So that's either the location of the picture, or the photographer's address. Anderson is likely to be the photographer's name.

 

A quick Google shows there are Via Giorgio Arcoleos in both Naples, Italy and Palermo, Sicily.

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If it literally says "via", then that's Italian for "way" or "road". So that's either the location of the picture, or the photographer's address. Anderson is likely to be the photographer's name.

 

A quick Google shows there are Via Giorgio Arcoleos in both Naples, Italy and Palermo, Sicily.

 

If it literally says "via", then that's Italian for "way" or "road". So that's either the location of the picture, or the photographer's address. Anderson is likely to be the photographer's name.

 

A quick Google shows there are Via Giorgio Arcoleos in both Naples, Italy and Palermo, Sicily.

Dead right.I asked an Italian friend. Published by Anderson, premises in Via Giorgio Arceola, 6a to 6b. A quick look on Google street view tells me the premises is not still there, but that the Italians drop as much litter as we do here in the UK.

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