Custom Work on 100+ Yr Old Photo Developed from an Old Judge Glass Plate Negative

[mouschi]

Could you imagine discovering the Old Judge original glass plate negatives from the Vermont Find in the mid 90s? I'll write more on that in a future article, but for now, I thought I'd share a pickup (and custom project) having to do with this find.

In this find were photographs developed directly from the glass plate negatives from over 100 years ago. I was able to obtain a photograph of Abner Boyce.

Abner Boyce was featured four times in the Old Judge set, and is on the Old Judge "scarce" list. His cards never surface, and it is a pity - look at that background, and moustache! I was fortunate to have picked up Boyce's card below, which is the exact specimen used in what is known to many as the bible of Old Judge cards - "The Photographic Baseball Cards of Goodwin & Company". One of the authors, Jay Miller, was kind enough to sell it to me. (Thanks Jay!)



At first glance, it looks like Boyce is in a meadow fielding a fly ball with his bare hands. If you look closely, you can see flowers, a wood fence, path, and a river in the background. It is truly a beautiful card! While Old Judge aficionados know that Boyce isn't truly outside, but rather in a studio with a backdrop, the photograph that was developed directly from the original glass plate negative over a century ago shows the truth.



If you look at the bottom of the photograph, you can see a rug or blanket covering a studio ground. The photograph in and of itself not only tells a more complete story, but is also much larger and clearer than the Old Judge card.

I *love* cabinet cards, and Old Judge N173s. I think that is why this photograph appealed to me so much initially outside of its amazing story of origin - it looks like a cabinet card without the cardboard backing. If you haven't seen one, check them out - they are really cool. 19th century photographs would typically be glued onto cardboard backing with rounded corners that extend a bit beyond the borders of the photograph, most prominently at the bottom, so the studio name could be shown.

While I love the photograph as-is, I wanted to create something even cooler. Maybe even something that could double as a holder. I got to work on something that allowed me to test my debossing and gold foiling skills. Let me tell you - it took TONS of trial and error.

Instead of a photography studio name, I wanted to put "The Vermont Find" to commemorate what monumental find this photograph was from. All is done in gold foil on black cardstock.



The gold foil applied to the back was fun to watch come to life ...



Peeling the top layer off ...



Voila! I created the artwork on the back of this to show a baseball suspended on a string with a baseball player posing as if he were about to hit the ball, with a camera on the right, taking a picture of the action. Old Judge cards are famous for this, so I figured why not have some fun with it?



I affixed the top portion to an inner frame, and fully debossed the inside with the same artwork I used for the back. It looks like leather, but it is cardstock!



There is a gap at the top so I can slide in the photograph. Now there is only one thing left to do ... slide it in!



Woohoo! I LOVE how well it displays now. After I was done, my wife suggested I do a frame for the Old Judge card to match it. I couldn't just leave it as-is, so I did one for the card as well.



They look great in the light box, but even better on my shelf, which is exactly what I was hoping for. This photograph makes me feel like I have a window to look into the 19th century - I love it!



I have created a video below showing me create this, and talking through the project - please give it a look! It also should play through various other custom projects of mine if you are interested.

This isn't the end of this story, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to tell and show the rest of it, so for now, I'll just say "to be continued..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O_I...OpisEz&index=1

[D. Bergin]

Holy Cows! Amazing job.

[Fred]

I am a fan of your incredible hobby creations. Can't wait for the next one.

Too cool!

[stutor]

Wow. Amazing work! That looks incredible.

[GasHouseGang]

I'm glad you made a video, because I can't image how you created something like that. Really nice!

[wolf441]

Amazing work, Tanner!!!

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

makes me wish I had though of paying someone to develop the glass plate negatives I had of Jack Johnson and Abe Attel!

[GasHouseGang]

What kind of machine put that embossed gold print on the paper? That was fun to watch.

[GaryPassamonte]

Great!

[the-illini]

That is great - you do some really cool stuff with your collection

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by the-illini

That is great - you do some really cool stuff with your collection

+1 agree amazing

[BobC]

Originally Posted by the-illini

That is great - you do some really cool stuff with your collection

+2

[oldjudge]

Fantastic job Tanner! You are bringing the set to life.

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

makes me wish I had though of paying someone to develop the glass plate negatives I had of Jack Johnson and Abe Attel!

For future reference it is quite easy. In the past you would either make a contact print; laying the negative on the paper then exposing and printing, or putting it in a holder, placing in an enlarger and making a larger print. With modern technology it is not that difficult anymore. A glass plate negative can be scanned on a pro model flat bed scanner like the Epson V850 or Expression 12000XL. It can be done at various resolutions (dpi's). Once you have the file (jpg) it can be printed on digital, preferably archival, paper. It can also be printed on traditional silver halide paper. One of my photo labs, Digital Silver Imaging in Belmont, MA can take a digital file and print it on regular photographic paper. They are not cheap, but the results are incredible. Interestingly, you can see the exposure of the clip that held the glass plate negative against the paper in Tanner's photo. It is the white mark in the lower left that looks like a collar stay.

Here are a few scans using my 12 year old Microtek pro scanner:

Magic Lantern slide of one of the heats for the 100m dash at the 1896 Olympics.

1896-100m00007.jpg

Glass plate negative circa 1932. The man on the right, George Calnan, took the athletes oath at the opening ceremony of the 1932 Olympics. Winner of 3 bronze medals in fencing (1 in 1928, 2 in 1932). A lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, he died in the crash of the dirigible U.S.S. Akron off the coast of New Jersey in April 1933.

levis-calnan-100013.jpg

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Michael B

For future reference it is quite easy. In the past you would either make a contact print; laying the negative on the paper then exposing and printing, or putting it in a holder, placing in an enlarger and making a larger print. With modern technology it is not that difficult anymore. A glass plate negative can be scanned on a pro model flat bed scanner like the Epson V850 or Expression 12000XL. It can be done at various resolutions (dpi's). Once you have the file (jpg) it can be printed on digital, preferably archival, paper. It can also be printed on traditional silver halide paper. One of my photo labs, Digital Silver Imaging in Belmont, MA can take a digital file and print it on regular photographic paper. They are not cheap, but the results are incredible. Interestingly, you can see the exposure of the clip that held the glass plate negative against the paper in Tanner's photo. It is the white mark in the lower left that looks like a collar stay.

Here are a few scans using my 12 year old Microtek pro scanner:

Magic Lantern slide of one of the heats for the 100m dash at the 1896 Olympics.

Attachment 501936

Glass plate negative circa 1932. The man on the right, George Calnan, took the athletes oath at the opening ceremony of the 1932 Olympics. Winner of 3 bronze medals in fencing (1 in 1928, 2 in 1932). A lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, he died in the crash of the dirigible U.S.S. Akron off the coast of New Jersey in April 1933.

Attachment 501938

All you're doing is making me feel worse for not doing it! The Johnson was a huge 8 x 10 glass negative too, would've yielded great results I bet. The two Attels were more like 4 x 6ish

[mouschi]

Thank you for all the kind words, people! It is definitely a far cry from the new Canseco stuff I've done, and a new skillset is needed to make this work with 19th century stuff, but I'm just wholly in love with this time period.

I didn't post about this one here, but this may be fun for some folks to take a look at - it involves a 1914 Cracker Jack Christy Mathewson ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0g_pnfonPM

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

All you're doing is making me feel worse for not doing it! The Johnson was a huge 8 x 10 glass negative too, would've yielded great results I bet. The two Attels were more like 4 x 6ish

Do you have any scans or pics of these at all? If so, PM me and I'll see if there is anything I can do

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by mouschi

Do you have any scans or pics of these at all? If so, PM me and I'll see if there is anything I can do

fairly decent image, let me know if emailing it would be better

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

fairly decent image, let me know if emailing it would be better

If you have a bigger picture, you can send to tanmanbaseballfan@gmail.com - what a super cool image hiding in this negative!

[Bigdaddy]

Tanner, that is the coolest thing I've seen all day week month year!

Not only the design of the holder, but the execution of the end product. Bravo!

[Jason]

Very cool display Tanner!

[Jay Wolt]

Tanner very impressive!

[atx840]

Very cool project, decided to try and scan a few glass slides I have, turned out pretty good.

[Michael B]

[QUOTE=atx840;2195765]Very cool project, decided to try and scan a few glass slides I have, turned out pretty good.



It will sort of work with a regular flat bed scanner. A pro style photo scanner is different in that there is a regular glass surface and the cover also has a glass surface and its own scanner arm that runs back and forth.

Here are yours with a little work.

chappel 1.JPG
chappel 2.JPG
Bowerman.JPG
speaker.JPG

The Bowerman was not a good enough scan to work with though you can see that his name was written in the original negative above his head. Once you start cropping and enhancing the color you can see the dust spots and negative scratches. I cleaned some of them up.

[kkkkandp]

Tanner:

That is absolutely exceptional work!

Kevin

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

That's awesome, thanks for sharing that. So cool to see the picture come to life!

[atx840]

Fantastic work Michael, thank you!!

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by atx840

Fantastic work Michael, thank you!!

You are welcome. Having them in person and using a pro scanner would produce great results. You would be able to make prints from them. The halos in your scans are probably a result of them being two pieces of glass. A regular flat bed scanner cannot compensate for that. If you want to play around with them there are two tricks you can try.

1. Lay them on the flat bed, cover with a piece of white paper and use a flashlight and follow the scanner arm.

2. Lay them on the flat bed, shine a flashlight directly on the slide while you scan. Just remember not to stare during the scan. You could get cornea burn.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by atx840

Very cool project, decided to try and scan a few glass slides I have, turned out pretty good.

I'm a Speaker collector. Super cool you have a glass plate negative!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[todeen]

Originally Posted by mouschi

If you have a bigger picture, you can send to tanmanbaseballfan@gmail.com - what a super cool image hiding in this negative!

I am so impressed with your creation. Tip of the hat, sir!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[The-Cardfather]

Very nice!

[Joe_G.]

Well done Tanner !!

I've written about the glass plate negatives at length in past, enjoyed studying the Vermont find through Terry Knouse Sr. and the Saco River offering. When I lay my eyes upon a Goodwin negative I'm drawn to the history as it relates to Goodwin and Co. as opposed to the Vermont find itself but thankful ~88 authentic negatives were preserved via the find. You now need to obtain the negative that is a match to your Vermont find photo & your N172.

Did you notice that the ball was moved on the N172 vs the original negative? Jay and I have spotted quite a few poses in which the ball was moved on the N172 (likely on the 24 card negative).

Here is a copy of the Boyce negative that is a match to your photo; lot #93 at the Jan 2015 Saco River Offering.



Many of the negatives exhibit remarkable clarity that simply cannot be enjoyed on a small N172 or even on the N173s. Wish some of my favorite players were amongst the find, would love to see a Charlie Bennett (Tomlinson Studio), Lady Baldwin or Deacon White (Fearnaught Studio), or Sam Thompson (Gray Studio) negative.

The custom mounts with gold foil look fabulous, well done!

[ejharrington]

Great job Tanner!

[KCRfan1]

Scott and Tanner, if you do a creation for the plate please post the outcome.

We would love to see it!