Speed, Perfection, Cheapness:' The Ambrotype's Epoch in Photographic History

Margot Note

PhotoHistory XVOctober 22, 2011

“cheap substitutes”daguerreotypes’ “poorer cousins” “photographic abominations”“disgrace to photography and a burlesque upon

art”“abortions, and nine hundred and ninety-nine out

of every thousand taken in the United States are monstrosities”

Daguerreotypes are “obscured by a black cloud called Ambrotype…the black, nasty, filthy, ghastly, dead, inanimate, flat, shade of shadows.”

Gustave Le Gray Frederick Scott Archer

1st patent: addition of camphor to collodion

2nd patent: hermetically sealing collodion positives with Canada balsam and second sheet of glass

3rd patent: using potassium bromide in iodized collodion

“Caution - The term Ambrotype was originated as a trade mark to designate our patent pictures…. Any application of this term to pictures on single glass plates is therefore an infringement of our rights (injures our business) and involves the user in liability for damages.”

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