IMPROVEMENTS IN POIKILOGRAPHY
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Antonio Lombardi, Photographic Artist, of Brighton, and
Pall Mall, London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN POIKILOGRAPHY."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Antonio Lombardi at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th August 1878.
ANTONIO LOMBARDI, Photographic Artist, of Brighton, and Pall Mall, London.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN POIKILOGRAPHY."
This Invention relates to a method of colouring photographs well known to
photographers, and which consists in rendering them translucent by means of
varnishes and then applying colours from behind. Instead however of producing
such pictures in silver upon paper this improvement has reference to their pro-
duction in permament material or pigments upon a textile fabric which has been
rendered translucent by a method by which the whites of the picture shall suffer
the minimum of degradation.
For this purpose the fabric which is to form the intermediary pellicle between
the material forming the picture and the colours is, first of all, rendered translucent
by the application of a solution of a fixed oil, such as castor oil, in a suitable
menstruum, such as mythylic alcohol, to which is added pyroxyline, which is also
soluble in such alcohol. This is followed by treatment with a solution of gelatine
containing chrome alum for the purpose of rendering it insoluble in water when
once dry, and a white pigment, such as caolin or oxide of zinc, to impart such
a quality to the film as to fill up the meshes of the fabric with a translucent
insoluble material.
Upon such a fabric the photograph is produced in a permanent material by either
that method known to photographers as the "dusting on" process, by what is
generally termed the carbon process, or by means of an emulsion of a haloid salt of
silver, followed by such treatment as will effect the conversion of the silver forming
ID 431

page_text: the shadows of the picture into platinum or other substance of recognised
durability.
The picture may also be formed of asphaltum by coating the fabric with a
solution of that resin, exposing to light in the solar camera or printing frame, and
removing the unaltered asphaltum by a suitable solvent.
The photograph may also be printed upon the fabric by any of the so-called
"mechanical processes" of photography, or by the platinotype process; all these being
with a view to the subsequent colouring of the photograph by the application of
pigments upon the back of the picture, which owing to the translucency of the
fabric will produce an effect almost similar to that obtained by the application of
the pigments to the face.
The whites of the finished picture will retain their purity, and owing to the
chemical constitution of the photographic image the pigments employed in the
colouring process will not exercise any deleterious action upon the print.
I also colour by mechanical or handwork the textile fabric, upon which I after-
wards transfer carbon or other pigment prints, which being thus placed in optical
contact with the colours give the effect of a finished work of art, all the materials
employed being permanent; the photograph supplying the design with its lights
and shades, the polychromatic textile ground supplying the colour.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Antonio Lombardi in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 3rd January
1879.
ANTONIO LOMBARDI, Photographic Artist, of Brighton, and Pall Mall, London.
"IMPROVEMENTS POIKILOGRAPHY."
This Invention relates to a method of colouring photographs, well known to photo-
graphers, and which consists in rendering them translucent by means of varnishes
and then applying colours from behind. Instead however of producing such pictures in
silver upon paper this improvement has reference to their production in permanent
material or pigments upon a textile fabric, which has been rendered translucent by a
method by which the whites of the picture will suffer the minimum of degradation.
For this purpose the fabric which is to form the intermediary pellicle between
the material forming the picture and the colours is first of all rendered translucent
by the application of a solution of a fixed oil, such as castor oil, in a suitable
menstruum, such as mythylic alcohol, to which is added pyroxyline, which is also
soluble in such alcohol. This is followed by treatment with a solution of gelatine
containing chrome alum for the purpose of rendering it insoluble in water when
once dry, and a white pigment, such as kaolin or oxide of zinc, to impart such a
quality to the film as to fill up the meshes of the fabric with a translucent insoluble
material.
Upon such a fabric the photograph is produced in a permanent material by that
method known to photographers as the "dusting on" process, by what is generically
termed the "carbon process," or by means of an emulsion of a haloid salt of silver,
followed by such treatment as will effect the conversion of the silver forming the
shadows of the picture into platinum or other substance of recognised durability.
The picture may also be formed in asphaltum by coating the fabric with a
solution of that resin, exposing to light in the solar camera or printing frame, and
removing the unaltered asphaltum by the suitable solvent.
The photograph may also be printed upon the fabric by any of the so-called
mechanical processes (or platinotype) of photography, all these being with a view
to the subsequent colouring of the photograph by the application of pigments upon
the back of the picture, which, owing to the translucency of the fabric, will produce
an effect almost similar to that obtained by the application of the pigments to
the face.
The whites of the finished picture will retain their purity, and, owing to the
chemical constitution of the photographic image, the pigments employed in the
colouring process will not exercise any deleterious action upon the print.
We also colour by mechanical or handwork the textile fabric, upon which we
afterwards transfer carbon or other pigment prints, which being thus placed in
optical contact with the colours give the effect of a finished work of art, all the
inaterials employed being permanent; the photograph supplying the design with its
lights and shades, the polychromatic textile ground supplying the colour.
In witness whereof, I, the said Antonio Lombardi, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Thirty-first day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.