PhotoHistory

From: THE PRACTICAL PRINTER
A COMPLETE MANUAL PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTING

By Charles W Hearn, 1874

PORCELAIN PRINTING

PORCELAIN PRINTING-BOARDS

For the purpose of printing the porcelain successfully, different printing-boards have been invented, which are constructed in a different style from the ordinary negative-boards or frames.

Those which are now generally used are known by the name of “Jacoby’s Porcelain Printing-Frames.” Use them, viz.:

First it is necessary that a good sharp negative is had, then loosen the thumb-screw on the hinged clamp at the bottom of the frame, place the negative in the clamp so as to rest on the wood at the sides of the padded bed, then fasten by the thumb-screw so as to not move out of position. The strips that rest on the edge of the negative at the sides are for vignetting the picture. Cut a piece of cardboard the size that will slip in the small grooves, with a hole in the size you want.

After placing the negative as above, take a piece of strong paper and put it in the clamp as before, then put some mucilage or wax in the center, lay your porcelain plate in the position you want it, then throw the wire loops toward each other. This will make room for the plate between the bed and the negative. If it does not fill up the space, the four set-screws at the back of the frame will make it vary just to fit; then print as in any other way.

In printing the porcelain photograph care should be used not to print too long when separated, and that the space should not be too much. For heads one inch in size the space should be about one-twelfth or one-sixteenth inch, and less for small ones. Three inch heads should be three and one-sixteenth or one-quarter inch, and in all cases the negative must rest on the wood at the sides of the frame; for when you would separate the negative, the negative would follow the bed, and not give any space, and, of course, spoil the picture. Printing should always be done in the shade or under tissue-paper.

The “Jacoby Frames” are excellent in all of their parts, being so made as to secure perfect contact between the negative and porcelain, however uneven they both may be.

PLACING THE SENSITIVE PLATE ON THE BOARD FOR PRINTING

I will only describe how the plate and negative are arranged for printing on one kind of board, viz.: “Jacoby’s Porcelain Printing-Frame.”

First darken the room by pulling down the curtains, and take the printing-board to the darkest part of the room, away from the window, but not in such a dark place that you will experience any difficulty in seeing.

Loosen the screw which loosens the narrow strip of wood, on the printing-frame. Place the edge of the porcelain plate under this strip of wood, being sure that the collodionized side is uppermost, and fasten the wood to it by the same screw. The porcelain plate will then be held firmly.

If the plate is a smaller one than is really intended for the size frame which you may have, as a 1/2 size plate, and you may not have but this one 8 x 10 board, you cannot place the edge of one of the sides of the porcelain under the bar, because then you cannot manage the negative so that the porcelain can be advantageously printed.

In that case fasten the negative to the frame, as will presently be shown, and place the porcelain plate at the place you wish it, i. e., as near as you can at present tell, and hold the negative over the plate by means of the woodwork, at about a half inch from it,, and move the porcelain so that it will occupy the exact place you wish it to, and then lay back the negative carefully, so as not to move the porcelain in doing so. Now obtain some beeswax, and place a bit on the board close to all of the sides of, but pressed against, the porcelain. Hold the porcelain firmly by the opposite side whenever you press on a particular side, and you will prevent it from being moved. In placing this wax there be sure that you get none of it on the face of the porcelain, nor should you allow the wax to remain above the level of the surface of the plate, but considerably below it, for you must remember that the face of the negative is coming into close contact with the porcelain, and if the above is not strictly followed out the porcelain will not only move when you raise the negative, but the negative will be spoiled.

The negative is then fastened in a slit made in the bar provided in the printing-frame. This bar is easily turned back when it is required by means of a hinge, and the level of it is raised higher or let down lower, as you may require for the purpose of bringing the negative and porcelain in close contact. This is aided by another bar which is held in position by thumb-screws whenever it is finally fixed in its proper position.

When you are ready to place the negative in the frame first loosen the screws, place the negative in the place intended for it in the bar, tighten the screws, and lay it on to the porcelain, and it will then assume its proper place, when it is pressed in contact by the hand. Now fasten the screws, and be sure that they are tightened during all the printing. The springs are then placed on to the negative, and the porcelain is ready for printing.

To examine the print move the clamp springs, and raise the negative by the bar, and not by taking hold, of the negative itself.

Further directions are given by Mr. Jacoby with each frame. Scovill Manufacturing Company makes them, and all dealers sell them.

PRINTING VIGNETTE PORCELAINS

For the purpose of printing a vignette porcelain a block is made similar to those which have been described in Part I. The block should have a pasteboard fastened to it, upon which the clamping springs of the porcelain board can be fastened, which will then, besides keeping the porcelain and the negative in close contact, also hold the vignette-block in its place.

The same attention is required in vignetting porcelains as is necessary in printing positives on paper; so choose a suitable vignette-block, and cover it with tissue-paper before placing the porcelain out to print.

In case the background is a poor one it should be taken out, as has been explained, the only difference between the two being, in one the print is on paper, whereas here it is on porcelain.

I have very often taken out faulty backgrounds, and have printed in fine ones, and the result has often been very satisfactory to me, for they looked very fine, and also as if it was the original background.

When the high-lights of the face of the printed porcelain are too blanky they should be toned down by exposure to the light for a couple of seconds or so, which is best done by obtaining a suitable piece of a dark or opaque paper, and, tearing a piece out of it, leaving a hole which should be full as large as the place to be tinted. Hold it out in the light, and keep the paper in constant motion while there, so that there will not be any harsh edges.

PRINTING MEDALLION PORCELAINS

Perhaps some of my readers will say that this style of porcelain picture is never printed, but allow me to say to the contrary, for I have very often seen very good results obtained with this style of printing, and which, on account of their novelty, was very pleasing.

When you have an old negative, and there is a porcelain wanted from it, then it can sometimes be printed in a medallion very nicely, especially when the draperies are very black, and the background is also very dark, both of which are very troublesome in vignetting to obtain fine feathering to the halos.

These medallion porcelain prints look very pretty when the porcelain to be printed is to be of a small size, as a 1/4 size plate, but for anything larger than that size we do not like them at all.

When the medallion style of porcelain printing is made it should be put up in a square opening, either in the now fashionable gilt easel, or in the more sober-looking passepartout.

To print these porcelains in the medallion style you should follow out all of the particulars that have been fully explained in a chapter devoted to that in Part I, viz., Medallion and Arch-Top Printing. Place the right side of the mask (background) at its proper place on the face of the negative, and then place the porcelain out to the diffused rays of the sunlight to print. Now print the crescent line on it, as you would do with a paper print. Do not tint the outside very dark, a neutral shade between the background and the shaded crescent line being about right.

In placing the mask on the porcelain to shade the line be very careful that you do not scratch the film, for it is very tender.

WASHING THE PORCELAINS

The porcelain when printed, and the high-lights tinted a trifle (if they need it), is then ready to be washed and toned, which had better be done as soon as printed.

Take the porcelain and go into the toning-room and arrange the light so that it will not be too strong, and whatever further operations you may do to the porcelain, before you are through with it, should be done away from the window, especially in the toning of it, as will be, presently shown. Now take a four-ounce vial, partly filled with good alcohol (not necessarily 95 percent), and before you wash the porcelain a particle with water you should flow the contents of this vial over the prints, say half a dozen times, or until the print has turned a beautiful red color, which it will do in a very few minutes.

In pouring the alcohol on the plate, do not pour it always on one place, but at a different one each time, and be sure that the alcohol flows over all parts of the porcelain plate at the first flow, or else a harsh edge will be the result, which sometimes does not disappear in the final washings either with the alcohol or the water, although it may be said that this occurs very seldom. Do not keep pouring on the alcohol until the porcelain has turned a yellowish-red color, for this is very objectionable, and you may set it down as a rule when this color appears, then the strength of the print is fast disappearing.

When the print has turned a rich and warm color, which, if it has not been fumed too long, it will do in fifteen to twenty-five seconds, the plate is ready to be washed tolerably well under a tap of rainwater.

At first the film will repel the water, owing to its being soaked with alcohol, but in a couple of minutes or so the water will run smoothly over it. In the winter the plate had better be washed with lukewarm (no warmer) water, and never think of such a thing (much less acting upon it) as washing the porcelain with ice-cold water.

In placing the plate under the tap to wash, do not permit too large a stream of water to flow on it, for you must remember that the film will be more likely to slide off the plate if the water should manage to get a little under a corner with a large and heavy stream than it would with a small one. Do not let the water fall all of the time at one place on the plate, but move it so that it will fall at different parts of the plate, and as this washing does not require more than four or five minutes at the most, the beginner had better hold the plate in his hand during the whole time of washing, as the result will probably be better.

A good way to tell when the plate is sufficiently washed is to taste a drop or two of the water which has drained last from the plate, after it is removed from the flow of the pipe, and also after the plate has washed awhile, and if you do not taste any of the silver, you can conclude that the plate is washed plenty.

An acetic acid wash, for the porcelains, is not a very good thing compared with alcohol, as a trial of the two will prove.