1137
acid, followed by washing in water, to leave an image
of pure platinum black embedded in the surface fi bres
of the paper sheet.
The problem with this elegant process is that the
reduction of the platinous salt is slow, and may be fur-
ther inhibited by additives in the paper, such as gelatin
size. Unless the reaction is speeded up by using hot
developer, the chemicals tend to wash out of the paper
before the image is fully developed. How Willis’s “cold
development” paper overcame this problem was never
disclosed, but it appears to employ an alum-rosin pa-
per size in preference to gelatin. The maintenance of
a dry storage environment for unexposed paper was
vital to avoid degradation by moisture. In contrast, the
presence of some moisture was essential to facilitate
the chemistry of the printing-out platinotype process
of Pizzighelli and Hübl; but this was hard to control,
so attempts to market commercial papers of this type
foundered rather quickly.
Platinotype claimed a threefold advantage over all
other photographic printing processes: it was said to
be “permanent, artistic, and simple.” Acknowledged as
the easiest process, it was three times faster than silver
printing-out paper. Of its permanence there could be
no doubt, because platinum is the most inert of metals,
impervious to attack by any common substance. What
was not recognised in the 19th century, is that platinum
black is also a very effi cient chemical catalyst and, when
exposed to the—usually polluted—Victorian atmo-
sphere, it promoted the formation of strong acids within
the paper fi bres. Thus the paper of a platinum print may
be embrittled by acidic degradation over the years, albeit
the image remains pristine: historic platinotypes should
therefore be handled carefully, to avoid damage.
Concerning the aesthetics of the process there was
at fi rst some equivocation: the dominant photographic
print medium from 1855–1895, was the albumen print,
providing the familiar brown silver image in a glossy
layer of hardened egg white. For photographers habitu-
ated to this medium, the neutral grey-black platinum
print with its luminous tonal gradation and totally matte
surface came as a shock. Some connoisseurs greatly
preferred it, however, dismissing albumen as “sharp and
slimy.” To accommodate all tastes, Willis introduced
both “Sepia” and “Japine” platinotype papers into his
commercial range. Platinum printing was much used
for portraiture, landscape, and important documentary
work. Like albumen, it could only be contact-printed.
Platinotype paper cost about twice as much as silver
printing-out paper, but it was comparable in price with
the new (1890s) bromide enlarging papers.
Platinotype was the favoured medium of the Brother-
hood of the Linked Ring; notable users included Fred-
erick H. Evans, whose great series of cathedral interior
studies was begun in 1890, Henry Peach Robinson,
whose most important exhibition work was printed
entirely in platinum, as was the portraiture of Frederick
Hollyer, the atmospheric landscapes of Alfred Horsley
Hinton, and George Davison, the genre studies of Frank
Meadow Sutcliffe, and, from outside the fraternity,
Peter Henry Emerson with his handsome volume of
40 platinotypes, Life and Landscape on the Norfolk
Broads, printed in limited edition by James Valentine
of Dundee.
By 1900, the platinum print had reached its zenith,
widely acknowledged as the fi nest printing medium in
the photographic repertoire; but its glory would prove
short-lived: the First World War would transmute plati-
num into a strategic material, requisitioned for making
explosives, rather than pictures. Photography’s most
beautiful and permanent of all processes enjoyed a
commercial lifespan of only 30 years, but happily the
tradition of the hand-crafted platinum print continues
even today.
Mike WareSee also: Platinotype Co. (Willis & Clements);
Evans, Frederick H.; Robinson, Henry Peach; and
Brotherhood of the Linked Ring.Further Reading
Abney, William de Wiveleslie, and Clark, Lyonel, Platinotype,
its Preparation and Manipulation, London: Sampson Low,
Marston, 1895.
Cottington, Ian, “Platinum and Early Photography.” Platinum
Metals Review, 28/4, 1984, 178–188; and in History of Pho-
tography, 10/2, 1986, 131–139.
Crawford, William, The Keepers of Light, Dobbs Ferry, New
York: Morgan and Morgan, 1979.
Hinton, Alfred Horsley, Platinotype Printing, London: Hazell,
Watson, and Viney, 1897.
Nadeau, Luis, History and Practice of Platinum Printing,
3rd revised ed., Fredericton, New Brunswick: Atelier Luis
Nadeau, 1994.
Pizzighelli, Giuseppe, and Hübl, Baron Arthur von, Platinotype,
translated by J.F. Iselin, London: Harrison and Sons, 1886;
reprinted in Nonsilver Printing Processes, edited by Peter C
Bunnell, New York: Arno Press, 1973.
Ware, Michael J., “An Investigation of Platinum and Palladium
Printing.” The Journal of Photographic Science, 34 /13,
1986, 165–177.
Ware, Mike, “The Eighth Metal: the Rise of the Platinotype
Process.” In Photography 1900: The Edinburgh Symposium,
edited by Julie Lawson, Ray McKenzie, and Alison Morrison-
Low, Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland and National
Galleries of Scotland, 1993.PLUMBE JR., JOHN (1809–1857)
“After having devoted nearly all our time, for upwards of
three years, upon the U.S. transcontinental railroad—ex-
hausting all our pecuniary means—we at last, after being
laughed at as a madman, were obliged to resort to taking