The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-11-01
PHOTOGRAPHS IN BUSINESS.
The Expense of Samples Done Away with
in Many Lines of Goods


What looked like a sample card OF
knives lay upon wholesale cutters
table. An observer easily noted upon
nearer approach that the card really
bore only photograph of dozen
knives arranged as knives commonly
are upon the sample cards of whole
salers. All the qualities of the knives
that can be detected by the eye seemed
present in the photograph. Such
card of samples if made up OF the OBJ
jects themselves would cost somewhere
between five and eight dollars. The
Photographic samples may be produced
for a fifth as much.
The application of photography to
the matter of mercantile samples has
wrought a marvellous economy in
scores of wholesale trades. The loss
upon samples is millions of dollars an
nually. Hundreds of thousands of Sd M
pie hats are sold at absurd prices in
this city. A successful retail trade in
shoes has been built up by 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 one hun
dred other articles of merchandise.
The loss upon solid silverware
sent out as samples has been
very great, SO great, indeed. that
many houses now sell solely by photo
graphic 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 considering.
Photography has made it possible to
sell to advantage by sample bulky
articles that can not be carted all over
the country by travelling statesmen.
Furniture. iron and brass work,
massive clocks, and a hundred and one
other such articles, are thus sold Cut
class and china are among the samples
most successfully photographed.
If the dream of photographing in
colors shall ever be realized, the pub
LEGATION of photography to the matter
of mercantile samples will be wider
than ever. Fairly good work in col
ored Photographic samples is already
done. Young women, many of them
technically educated at Cooper insti-
tute, are usually the colorists en-
ployed in this work. Wages for such
work have sometimes been as high as
twenty-five dollars week, bat it was
only women Of much skill and industry
who could earn SO much. Most of the
work is done at home. the photo
nj, r,la hoirrr tod to ba
colorists in large patches. Analine
colors are used, SO that the work usu-
ally lacks softness of tone.
The actual work of photographing
samples is done at the photogra piers,
the shop. or factory. The art of com
mercial photography is one requiring
considerable technical skill and in
certain way knowledge of posing.
The essential thing in the pose of a
sample is that it shall result in pro-
ducing faithful picture of the origi-
nal, and the chief advantage that
photography has over many cheaper
pictorial processes is its truth
fulness. Photo-engraving is a
vastly cheaper process, since
thc uTSt coSG VI Tie pldUe having Deen
met the after expense is simply mat
ter of printing and paper. The costly
chemicals used in Photographic print
ing make it expensive.
An interesting outcome of what was
essentially 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 photograph of
buildings and of architectural details.
Then few men. noticing his nice. arts
tic taste and feeling, employed him in
portraiture. From these patrons his
fame spread to others engaged in kim
dred arts, and in time he came to be
the one photographer to whom literary
and artistic celebrities were recon-
mended. A few persons outside the
world of art have gone to him for por-
traits, but the architects and their
artistic brethren have always been
jealous and anxious to keep him for
themselves. Y. Sun.