A Woodburytype is both a printing process and the print that it produces. In technical terms, the process is a ''photomechanical'' rather than a ''photographic'' one, because sensitivity to light plays no role in the actual printing. The process produces very high quality

continuous tone A continuous-tone image is one in which each color at any point in the image can transition smoothly between shades, rather than being represented by discrete elements such as halftones or pixels. Examples of continuous-tone images are natur ...

images in

monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, mon ...

, with surfaces that show a slight relief effect. Essentially, a Woodburytype is a mold-produced copy of an original photographic negative with a tonal range similar to a

carbon print A carbon print is a photographic print with an image consisting of pigmented gelatin, rather than of silver or other metallic particles suspended in a uniform layer of gelatin, as in typical black-and-white prints, or of chromogenic dyes, as in t ...

. The process was introduced by the English photographer Walter B. Woodbury and was in use during the final third of the 19th century, most commonly for illustrating fine books with photographic portraits. It was ultimately displaced by

halftone Halftone is the reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone, continuous-tone imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size or in spacing, thus generating a gradient-like effect.Campbell, Alastair. ''The Designer's Lexicon''. ...

processes that produced prints of lower quality but were much cheaper.

Process

A dichromate-sensitized sheet of

gelatin Gelatin or gelatine () is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also be referred to as hydrolyzed collagen, coll ...

is exposed to UV-rich light through a photographic negative, causing each area of the gelatin to harden to a depth proportional to the amount of exposure. It is then soaked in warm water to dissolve the unhardened portion of the gelatin. The resulting relief image is pressed into a thick sheet of

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

under about 5000

pounds per square inch The pound per square inch (abbreviation: psi) or, more accurately, pound-force per square inch (symbol: lbf/in2), is a unit of measurement of pressure or of stress based on avoirdupois units and used primarily in the United States. It is the pre ...

of pressure. This creates an intaglio metal printing plate, which is used as a mold. It is filled with liquid pigmented gelatin and a sheet of paper is then pressed down onto it, squeezing out the excess gelatin and attaching the remainder to the paper. After the gelatin has set sufficiently, the print is stripped from the mold, trimmed, and usually mounted onto a larger sheet or card.

History

The Woodburytype process was invented by Walter B. Woodbury and patented in 1864.Ovenden, 216; Rosenblum, 198; Bloom, 30. Auer and Auer give the date of its invention as 1866. It was the first successful photomechanical process fully able to reproduce the delicate

of photographs. It produced true middle values and did not make use of a screen or other image deconstruction method. It was often considered the most perfect, most beautiful photomechanical process and inspired a number of books, magazines, and special edition printings between 1864 and 1910. When attempts were made to adopt Woodburytype to rotary printing, the process could not compete with the quickly developing

collotype Collotype is a gelatin-based photographic process, photographic printing process invented by Alphonse Poitevin in 1855 to print images in a wide variety of Tone (color), tones without the need for Halftone, halftone screens. The majority of coll ...

and

photomechanical processes that almost completely replaced Woodburytype by the end of the nineteenth century. Like many practical inventions, the Woodburytype process was built on, or had features in common with, other inventions and discoveries. It utilized the photosensitivity of dichromated

, discovered in 1852 by

Henry Fox Talbot William Henry Fox Talbot (; 11 February 180017 September 1877) was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th c ...

, who was thereby building on Mungo Ponton's 1839 contribution of

potassium dichromate Potassium dichromate is the inorganic compound with the formula . An orange solid, it is used in diverse laboratory and industrial applications. As with all hexavalent chromium compounds, it is chronically harmful to health. It is a crystalline ...

to the list of known sensitizing agents for making photographs on paper. The photochemical formation of the gelatin relief dates back to the first carbon printing patent of Alphonse Poitevin (1855). The idea of washing unhardened gelatin from the lower part of an exposed gelatin layer can be found in the early experiments of Adolphe Fargier (1861) and in the development of

Joseph Swan Sir Joseph Wilson Swan Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (31 October 1828 – 27 May 1914) was an English physicist, chemist, and inventor. He is known as an independent early developer of a successful incandescent light bulb, and is respon ...

’s fully practical carbon-transfer process (1864). Alois Auer, in his 1853 book on nature printing, describes making printing plates by forcibly impressing soft low-relief objects, such as leaves, into sheets of

. The ancient Egyptians made molds and used them to mass-produce small

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

goods. It is therefore not overly remarkable that some or all of the credit for the invention of “photorelief printing” was claimed by, or on behalf of, more than one inventor when the Woodburytype process was current, or that the matter can still generate heated debate among those inventors' present-day admirers. Regardless of the fact that many historical findings support Joseph Swan’s priority of original ideas for the photorelief process introduced under the name photo-mezzotint, it was Woodbury who advanced his research ideas into a fully workable and practical method of photomechanical printing of continuous-tone photographs. Woodbury’s patents in England, France, Belgium, and the United States, as well as production of several Woodburytype process printing establishments in England, France, and the US, were responsible for the printing of hundreds of thousands of Woodburytype photographs that provided book and magazine illustrations, short-run advertisement material, and promotional material. A number of Woodburytype images were also printed for sale as individual images or as cartes-de-visite (CDV) or cabinet cards (CC). Woodbury himself and a number of other researchers continued to improve various practical aspects of the Woodburytype process. Several important variants of the Woodburytype process were also developed and used on a very limited scale. The Woodburytype process was a unique photomechanical process as it was the only practical fully continuous-tone photomechanical process ever invented. Woodburytype prints made using only carbon black or other stable inorganic pigments as imaging material are superbly stable from light fading. The stability of the gelatin binder might be compromised at higher temperatures and humidity due to biological deterioration. A number of Woodburytype prints were surface coated using collodion or other organic varnishes and coatings. The majority of Woodburytype prints are easy to identify because the process was clearly described in print in books and on many prints sold commercially. Those that are described as “permanent prints” or not described at all, however, can be difficult to identify correctly even when using highly sophisticated analytical methods. English: Woodburytype, photorelief printing, Woodbury’s process, relievo printing French: photoglyptie German: Woodburydruck

Gallery

File:Étienne Carjat, Portrait of Charles Baudelaire, circa 1862.jpg,

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...

Étienne Carjat Étienne Carjat (; 28 March 1828 – 8 March 1906) was a French journalist, caricaturist and photographer. He co-founded the magazine ''Le Diogène'', and founded the review . He is best known for his numerous portraits and caricatures of po ...

, c. 1862 File:Composer Rossini G 1865 by Carjat - Restoration.jpg,

Gioacchino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote man ...

by Carjat, 1865 File:Victor Hugo by Étienne Carjat 1876 - full.jpg,

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

by Carjat, 1876 File:Tom Taylor by Lock and Whitfield.jpg,

Tom Taylor Tom Taylor (19 October 1817 – 12 July 1880) was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch (magazine), ''Punch'' magazine. Taylor had a brief academic career, holding the professorship of English literatu ...

by Lock and Whitfield, c. 1880 File:Annie-Oakley-woodburytype-cabinet-card-c1890s.png,

Annie Oakley Annie Oakley (born Phoebe Ann Mosey; August 13, 1860 – November 3, 1926) was an American marksman, sharpshooter and folk heroine who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West. Oakley developed hunting skills as a child to provide for her impoveris ...

Elliott & Fry Elliott & Fry was a Victorian era, Victorian photography studio founded in 1863 by Joseph John Elliott and Clarence Edmund Fry. For a century, the firm's core business was taking and publishing photographs of the Victorian public and social, arti ...

, c. 1890s

References

Sources

Art & Architecture Thesaurus, s.v. "Woodburytype (process)"
Accessed 28 September 2006. * Auer, Michèle, and Michel Auer. ''Encyclopédie internationale des photographes de 1839 à nos jours/Photographers Encyclopaedia International 1839 to the Present'' (Hermance: Editions Camera Obscura, 1985). * Bloom, John. "Woodbury and Page: Photographers of the Old Order". In ''Toward Independence: A Century of Indonesia Photographed'' (San Francisco: The Friends of Photography, 1991), 29-30. * Oliver, Barret. ''A History of the Woodburytype: The First Successful Photomechanical Printing Process and Walter Bentley Woodbury'' (Nevada City, Ca, Carl Mautz Publishing, 2007). * Ovenden, Richard. ''John Thomson (1837-1921): Photographer'' (Edinburgh: National Library of Scotland, The Stationery Office, 1997), 35-36, 216. * Rosenblum, Naomi. ''A World History of Photography'' (New York: Abbeville Press, 1984), 34, 197-198.
Union List of Artist Names, s.v. "Woodbury, Walter Bentley"
Accessed 28 September 2006. * Stulik, Dusan C. and Kaplan, Art.
Woodburytype
' (The Atlas of Analytical Signatures of Photographic Processes) (Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute, 2013).

External links

The Woodburytype Process
{{commons category, Woodburytype Photographic processes dating from the 19th century Printing 1864 introductions