1074
Further Reading
Bulletin du Photo-Club de Paris, 1891–1902.
La photographie pictorialiste en Europe, 1888–1918, Point du
Jour Editeur, 2005.
Poivert Michel, Le pictorialisme en France, Paris: Höébeke/Bib-
liothèque Nationale, Collection Le siècle d’or, 1992.
PHOTOCHROM PROCESS
The Swiss process
This beautiful photomechanical process was worked out
by one of the oldest printing and publishing fi rms in the
world, Orell Füssly, of Zurich, Switzerland, funded in
1504 by Hans Rüegger. The fi rm still exists, along with
Photoglob AG, founded by the former “Art Institute
Orell Füssly” in 1889 for the worldwide distribution
of photochrom pictures. Using up-to-date technology,
they are currently the leading postcard publisher in
Switzerland and their range of printed products include
city maps and coffee-table books.
The descendants of Orell Füssly did not keep details
of the trade secrets associated with the 19th century
Photochrom process but a modern investigation by Dr
Bruno Weber confi rmed what many had been saying all
along. The process was lithographic in nature and made
use of a light-sensitive material fi rst used by Nicéphore
Niépce in 1814: asphalt, also known as bitumen, which
can be dissolved in benzene and thinly coated onto a
grained litho stone. When the coating is dry it can be
exposed under a continuous-tone negative and after an
exposure of 10 to 30 minutes under the summer sun
(several hours in winter) the parts of the image that
were protected from the light by the dark areas of the
negative will remain soluble when subjected to a solvent
such as turpentine. The rest of the image will remain
on the stone and can be made ready to receive a greasy
ink that will create a visible image that can then be
transferred to paper.
While the above photographic system sounds simple,
adapting it to the production of full color reproduc-
tions would be a different matter. The man who made
this happen was Hans Jakob Schmid (1856–1924), a
lithographer from the Swiss town of Nürensdorf. One
can only imagine the diffi culties involved in printing six
to fi fteen colors from a single black and white negative.
One stone was required for each color. A registration
system had to be designed that was so effi cient that even
today one needs a magnifying glass to discover minute
imperfections in the printing process.
Very large editions of town views were made by this
process, which can be classifi ed as a form of screenless
lithography. The Zurich Central Library currently
houses about 10,000 Photochrom landscapes and city
views given by the “Art Institute Orell Füssly” between
the years 1891 and 1914.
The fi rst photolithographic polychrome prints were
made in 1886. At that time this new printing technology
was referred to as “photo-chromo printing process.”
After 1888 it became known as “photochrom.” It was
also known under the name of Aäc.
Photochroms have almost the appearance of natural
color photographs, although under a magnifying glass
they will show a delicate grain pattern. Single illustra-
tions printed in Switzerland, Germany and the US often
have a characteristic caption in gold lettering along the
base of the print, with a serial number and “P.Z.” for
Photochrom, Zurich.
In the UK the process was exploited by the Photo-
chrom Company Ltd, which also used a different spell-
ing for its name and its products: Photochrome (sic).
Their large illustrations did not carry the P.Z. initials but
did show a serial number. We do not know how active the
English fi rm was but of the many Photochrom(e) Com-
pany illustrations that appeared in the Penrose Annual,
all but one, in Vol. 9 (1903), were in fact conventional
half-tone relief engravings.
There were other successful photolithographic op-
erations including the Frey process invented by Frey
& Söhne, of Zurich. This was acquired by Hudson &
Kearns in Britain but never successfully exploited by
them. There were also variants by Photostone, Wetzel
& Naumann, Müller & Trüb, Schulz, etc.
In 1897 the Photochrom Co. of Detroit, USA, was
created after William A. Livingstone (of The Detroit
Photographic Company) went to Zurich to obtain ex-
clusive U.S. rights to the Photochrom process which
they used to print color postcards, beginning in 1898.
In 1905 the company name was changed to the Detroit
Publishing Company. From 1907 they also used Phostint
as a trade name. The fi rm was active in the production
of color printing until 1931. Much of the company’s
archive is now housed at the Library of Congress, in
Washington, D.C. The collection includes over 25,000
glass negatives and transparencies as well as about 300
color photolithographic prints, mostly of the eastern
United States. The collection includes the work of a
number of photographers, one of whom was the well
known photographer William Henry Jackson (1843–
1942). Other parts of the collection are housed at the
Colorado Historical Society (Denver, Colorado) which
has approximately 13,000 images, primarily glass plate
negatives of views west of the Mississippi. Their col-
lection also includes vintage photographs, Photochrom
prints, postcards, and the Detroit Publishing Company’s
negative record log. The Historical Society also has one
of Jackson’s diaries from the 1870s.
The Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village
(Dearborn, Michigan) has approximately 18,000 vintage
photographs, 9,500 postcards, and 2,500 Photochrom
prints from the Detroit Publishing Company.