Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-10-12
NEW THING IN SAMPLE CARDS.
photography Now Employed and Mil
lions of Loss Thus Saved Annually.

What looked like a sample card of
knives lay upon a wholesale cutters
table. A New York Sun man easily
noted upon nearer approach that the
card really bore only a photograph of
a dozen knives arranged as knives COM
monty are upon the sample cards of
wholesalers. All the qualities of the
knives that can be detected by the eve
seemed present in the photograph.
Such a card Of samples if made up of
the object themselves would cost some
Where between So and IS. The photo
graphic samples may be produced for a
nth as much. The application of pho
Biography to the matter Of mercantile
samples has wrought a marvellous econ
omy in scores Of wholesale trades. The
loss upon samples is millions of dollars
annually. Hundreds of thousands of
sample hats are sold at absurd prices
in this city. A successful retail trade
In shoes has been built up by a concern
that began by buying samples brought
In by commercial travellers at the end
Of each season. What is true of hats
and shoes is equally true of 100 other
articles of merchandise. The loss upon
solid SiIverWare sent out as samples
has been very great, so great, indeed.
that many houses now sell solely by
Photographic samples. When the actual
pieces are sent out the salesman must
hire showroom in each city he visits.
and must pay for expressage, while
the item Of insurance is worth consider
ing. Photography has made it posi-
be to sell to advantage sample
bulky articles that cannot be carried all
over the country by travelling statesmen.
Furniture, iron and brass work, mass
i've clocks, and hundred and one
other such articles are thus sold. Cut
glass and china are among the samples
most successfully photographed.
Ii the dream of phOtographing in
colors shall ever be realized the applica-
ton of photography to the matter of
mercantile samples will be wider than
ever. Fairly good work in colored
Photographic samples is already done
Young women are usually the colorists
employed in this work. Wages for
such work have sometimes been as
high as $25 a week, but it was only
women Of much skill and industry who
could earn so much. Most of the work
is done at home, the Photographic
samples being intrusted to the colorists
in large patches. Aniline colors are
used, so that the work usually lacks
, sOftness of tone. The actual work of
, photographing samples is done at the
! photographers, the shop, or factory.
The art of commercial photography is
one requiring considerable technical
skill and in a certain way a knowledge
/ OF posing. The essential thing in the
in producing a faithful picture Of the
original, and the chief advantage that
pictorial processes is it's truthfulneSS.
Photo-engraving is a vastly cheaper
! process since the first cost of the plate
having been met, the after expense is
simply a matter of printing and paper.
The costly chemicals used in photo
grapic printing make it expensive. An
interesting outcome of what was es-
sentially commercial photography is
, the career of a New York photographer
with a unique place in the artistic
world. He was much employed by
architects to make photographs of
! buildings and of architectural details.
Then a few men, noticing his nice,
artistic taste and feeling, employed
him in pOrtraiture. From these pat
rons his fame spread to others engaged.
| in kindred arts, and in time he came
to be the one photographer to whom
literary and artistic celebrities were rec
commended. A few persons outside the
world of art have gone to him for
portraits, but the architects and their
artistic brethren have always been
| Jealous and anxious to keep him for
themselves.