1079
with the collaboration of William Henry Jackson. The
photochrom market transformed the fi rm into an inter-
national concern.
The photochrom production process required the
participation of four different specialists: photographer,
chromolithographer, stone-polisher and planographic
printer. The grained litho stone was coated with a
thin layer of bitumen purifi ed in ether and dissolved
in benzene. On this light-sensitive surface, a reversed
photographic half-tone negative was fi rmly applied, with
the sensitized side face down. By means of exposure
to daylight, lasting 10 to 30 minutes in summer, up
to several hours in winter, the bitumen would harden
in proportion to the action of the light, rendering it
insoluble to normal solvents. Then the lithographer or
photochrom operator washed the bitumen matrix in
various acid-free turpentine solutions, soaking off the
soft bitumen in proportion to the amount of exposure the
plate had received. The matrix was then retouched pains-
takingly with cotton wool tabs or a badger’s hair brush,
in the tonal scale of the particular colour, strengthening
or softening the tones as required. The gradation of the
positive bitumen image could be strongly infl uenced by
this manual procedure.
Following the chemically worked transformation of
the photographic half-tones into the grain structure of
the stone surface, the polisher treated the developed im-
age with fi nely powdered pumice stone, for grinding the
surface grain smooth. Readying the layer for subsequent
etching remained a long guarded commercial secret. The
prepared stone, with its highly resistant etching surface,
was, according to this method, degreased with a solu-
tion of 1° to 3° nitric acid, as for normal litho stones,
the image area repulsing the acid, then washed clean,
dried, coated with moisture-bearing gum arabic, and
dampened. After the fatty lithographic colours had been
applied by roller, the stone was then ready for printing
off. Each tint required a separate stone bearing the cor-
responding retouched image, and each print was usually
the product of at least six, and as a rule between 10 and
15 tint stones, and thus an equal number of pulls through
the press. An initial print run of “upwards of 150 to 200
impeccable prints” (Photographische Correspondenz
1888, 498) soon increased; individual print-runs are
unknown, but probably amounted to several thousand
prints by the early 1890s.
Photochrom prints subsequently became the object of
an extraordinary collecting cult, rivalling stereo views
as the favoured proxy souvenir of the armchair traveller.
The photochrom operators’ standard output consisted
of landscapes and cityscapes, the colour range of which
sometimes proved to be either too muted or too harsh
in the early years, but then settled down to present all
corners of the globe in a uniform photochrom style of
characteristically slightly hazy watercolour tints. Pho-
tochrom Zürich was early on offering more than Swiss
views—by 1891 it was supplying views of the Riviera,
the Rhine valley, Italy, France, and Britain. The company
was soon sending its own photographers out throughout
the continent to take views of sites and monuments.
In January 1896, the company’s stock included 3,000
European subjects. A standing exhibition was opened
in central Zürich “to give everyone the opportunity to
view our whole picture collection and, on that basis, put
together a travel itinerary.”
Around this time the scope of the collection was
broadened to include views from North Africa, Turkey,
Syria and Palestine, India, Russia, and the United States,
later Central and South America, adding Persia in 1911,
alongside China, New South Wales, and New Zealand.
The “P.Z.” logo in gilt lettering on each print, standing
for Photochrom and Photoglob Zürich, together with a
caption and inventory number, served as an instantly
recognisable trademark.
Prints were available in seven sizes, the majority in
sizes II (16 × 12 cm.) and III (21 × 27 cm.). The mounts
were available in six different designs: black with bev-
elled gilt edges, olive with broad gilt ruling, plain light
grey with the print recessed, grey matt frame, wash-
able enamel mount on laminate base, and on glass. An
ideal photochrom library for the systematic collector in
1899 included a solid oak cabinet, with compartments
designed to house 34 albums of 200 prints each—a total
of 6800 prints.
Photochroms may be considered to constitute a
signifi cant achievement in printing technology wedded
to dynamic marketing in the fi eld of popular landscape
imagery. After the First World War, which brought an end
to the cult of this type of collecting, Orell Füssli’s main
output consisted of poster printing and high value art
reproductions in the photochrom process. The last pho-
tochrom operator retired as recently as 1970. Orell Füssli
Verlag AG is now a leading multi-media publishing house
headquartered in Zürich. The trading arm Photoglob AG
specializes in the distribution of maps, albums, illustrated
works and guide books of Swiss interest.
About 10,000 unmounted photochrom prints are
housed in the print collections of the Zurich Central
Library, an annual donation by the Art Institute Orell
Füssli and its subsidiary Photoglob Co., from 1891 to
1914, of that year’s complete output.
Steven F. Joseph
See also: Collotype; Lemercier, Lerebours &
Bareswill; Vidal, Léon; and Jackson, William Henry.Further Reading
Southall, Thomas W., “In the Colors of Nature: Detroit Publish-
ing Company Photochroms.” In Intersections: Lithography,
Photography, and the Traditions of Printmaking, edited by