Seeking Help from Photo Collectors

[varsitycollectibles]

Thanks for the reply Michael B. Very helpful.

How about others? How far back does glossy go?

[thecatspajamas]

Do you mean glossy, as in the front surface is slick and reflects light but the back is plain paper, or resin-coated, as in the whole thing has a slick plastic feel to it (front and back) such as most modern photos?

Not trying to be nit-picky. It's just that I've found the term "glossy" means different things to different people. It's probably easier to show the photo in question, front and back, and go from there.

[varsitycollectibles]

CatsPJS, the item that sparked the question is one that I just purchased from your store. Haha. The link is in my original post.

As you may already know, it's glossy on the front and shows adhesive residue on the back. It's only the second photo I've purchased and it just made me wonder.

Love the item and your shipping was very fast. Much appreciated.

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by varsitycollectibles

CatsPJS, the item that sparked the question is one that I just purchased from your store. Haha. The link is in my original post.

As you may already know, it's glossy on the front and shows adhesive residue on the back. It's only the second photo I've purchased and it just made me wonder.

Love the item and your shipping was very fast. Much appreciated.

Ooops, guess I should have checked the link before speaking

So if I may remove my foot from my mouth and answer my own question, it is not a resin-coated print. Like most black-and-white photographs of the era, it is a gelatin silver print, the process for which was invented in the 1870's but not in commercial use in the U.S. until about the mid-1890's (Kodak adopted it in 1900). The "glossy" prints you asked about became popular in about the 1920's (according to Wikipedia), with earlier photo papers having more of a low-gloss and textured appearance.

Hope that helps

I might add that David Cycleback, also here on Net54, is an excellent resource for questions regarding photographic processes and paper types.

[varsitycollectibles]

Haha. I just happened to realize that your user name matched your eBay name.

That's exactly the kind of info I was curious about. Thanks for your replies. Look forward to adding to the collection soon.

[Michael B]

I posted my original reply while I was at work. Now that I am at home I have checked my archives. Without doing too much searching I came up with two photos dated the same day that give a pretty good idea of how early glossy photos were reproduced.

The first one is from Gilliams News Syndicate and has a dated caption sheet attached to the back of June 17, 1908. This is Bill Horr, 1908 Olympic medal winner and College Football Hall of Famer.

The second one has a George Grantham Bain backstamp and a date stamp of June 17, 1908. I also have an original studio print of the second one with no stamping that has a matte finish. Bain probably did not take the original as he scratched an id on his negative and the original has no such markings. This is Lloyd Jones, graduated from Penn in 1907 with a degree in engineering. 1908 Olympian.

I have other photos that are absolutely dateable to 1900 and 1903 that have a non-glossy/matte finish. Several others that may fall between 1903 and 1908 that are also non-glossy/matte. I hope this is what you are looking for.

[Runscott]

I have glossy albumens from the late 1800's. Most are mat finish, but some are glossy - the glossy ones don't look as nice in my opinion.