IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING STIPPLED TINTS, BACKGROUNDS, AND VIGNETTES UPON PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Marcus Guttenberg, of Bristol, in the County of
25
Gloucester, for the Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING STIPPLED
TINTS, BACKGROUNDS, AND VIGNETTES UPON PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Marcus Guttenberg at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th April 1878.
"
MARCUS GUTTENBERG, of Bristol, in the County of Gloucester. IMPROVEMENTS
IN PRODUCING STIPPLED TINTS, BACKGROUNDS, AND VIGNETTES UPON PHOTOGRAPHIC
PICTURES."
The object of my Invention is to produce certain effects and backgrounds upon
photographic prints, whether in carbon or silver, whereby the appearance of the
photograph is so altered as to resemble an artistic and carefully finished drawing
or an engraving, according to the nature of the background introduced, and my
Invention consists in producing such effects and backgrounds by printing from an
engraved plate, or lithographic stone, or both, as hereafter described, upon the paper
on which the photograph is to be transferred or printed, as the case may be.
In carrying out my Invention I print upon the albumenized, or salted, or gela-
tinised paper on which the photograph is to be afterwards transferred or printed in
the usual way from a plate on which a plain or graduated stipple, and a vignette,
landscape, interior, or other background have been engraved, or from a lithographic
stone upon which the said stipple and background have been transferred from the
engraved plate, or otherwise produced; or I may print the stippled tint separately
from the background, the one from the plate, and the other from the stone; or I
may print different backgrounds without the engraving stipple; or I may print
different portions of the stippled tint in different colors for the different parts of
the picture by using a separate stone or plate for each. On to the paper so printed
with stipple and background is then transferred the carbon film (in the case of a

page_text: carbon photograph), printed from a negative taken on a light background; or in the
case of a silver print the paper is then sensitised and placed on the negative in the
proper position, and the picture printed in the usual way, the stippled tint in either
case showing through the photographic print and imparting to it the appearance
of a highly finished drawing.
The Invention is applicable both to landscape and portrait photography.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said Marcus Guttenberg in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th October
1878.
::
5. MARCUS GUTTENBERG, of Bristol; in the County of Gloucester. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRODUCING STIPPLED TINTS, BACKGROUNDS, AND VIGNETTES UPON PHOTOGRAPHIC
PICTURES."
The object of my Invention is to produce certain effects and backgrounds in
photographic prints (whether in carbon or silver), whereby the appearance of the
photograph is so altered as to resemble an artistic and carefully finished drawing or
an engraving, according to the nature of the background introduced, and my
Invention consists in producing such effects and backgrounds by printing, as here.
after described, from an engraved plate or lithographic stone (or from both) upon
paper on which the photograph is to be transferred or printed, as the case
may be.
the
In carrying out my Invention I print from an engraved plate with ink or color
upon the albumenised, or salted, or gelatinised paper on which the photograph is to
be afterwards transferred or printed in the usual way (or I may print on the paper
before it is gelatinised or albumenised), upon which engraved plate a uniform or a
graduated stipple, and also a vignette, landscape, interior, or other background have
been engraved; or I print on the said paper from a lithographic stone on to which
the said stipple and background have been transferred from the engraved plate or
otherwise produced upon the stone; or I print the stippled tint separately from the
background, the stipple from the engraved plate, and the vignette or other back.
ground from the lithographic stone on which said vignette or other background may
have been produced by crayon drawing on the stone, or in any other suitable
manner; or I may print different backgrounds without the engraving stipple; or I
may print different portions of the stippled tint in different colors for the different
parts of the picture by using a separate stone or plate for each. The stipple extends
over the whole surface of the paper or not. On to the paper so printed with stipple
and background the carbon film (in the case of a carbon photograph) is then trans-
ferred, which film should have been printed from a negative taken on a light back-
ground; or if taken on a dark background care must be taken that the background
in the negative is entirely blocked out in such a way that no sharp outline is left
around the subject (and more particularly the head in portrait photography), so

page_text: that no trace of the photographic background shall appear in the picture when
printed.
In the case of a silver print the paper so printed with stipple and background is
then sensitised and placed on the negative in the proper position, and the picture is
printed thereon in the usual way, the stippled tint in either case showing through
the photographic print and imparting to it the appearance of a drawing or engraving
upon which a great amount of artistic labor has been bestowed.
The Invention is applicable both to portrait and landscape photography.
Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of performing
the same, I declare that what I claim as my Invention to be protected by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is, the production of stippled tints, vignettes,
and other backgrounds upon photographic pictures by plate or lithographic printing,
or both combined, applied to the paper before the photograph is transferred or
printed thereon, in the manner and for the purpose herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Marcus Guttenberg, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eleventh day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
MARCUS GUTTENBERG. (LS.)