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The 1860s had seen a very rapid rise in photographically
illustrated publications and the scope of application was
largely defi ned. In physical terms the vast majority
of photographic illustrated publications of the 1870s
continued to be in the form of pasted in Albumen
prints. However, during this decade a wider range of
photographic print processes was exploited for a vari-
ety of objectives. These included the Carbon transfer
process, and a variety of photomechanical processes
ranging from the Woodburytype through the Collotype
to photolithography.
Sales and marketing strategies of photographic
publishers varied during the 1870s. Some publishers
aimed at the luxury end of the market and exploited the
characteristics of the Woodburytype. Other publishers
built on the industrialised production of the Albumen
print, while others aimed to exploit photomechanical
processes to improve productivity, cut costs and thus
target a wider audience. The part work continued to
be a staple.
The photographically illustrated art serial reproduc-
ing well-know paintings were popular during the 1870s.
In 1875 the contemporary press reported that the ‘ar-
tisan classes’ of the principal manufacturing towns in
the north of England fl ocked to obtain an issue of The
Picture Gallery (published by Sampson Low, Marston,
Low, and Searle of London) dedicated to the artist Sir
Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792). Curiously, the photo-
graphic illustrations were in fact almost exclusively
taken from engravings after the paintings.
The Carbon transfer process produced a permanent
photographic print, which coupled to a broader tonal
range differentiated it from the ubiquitous Albumen
print. Since different coloured carbon ‘tissue’ could be
used, the Carbon process was particularly well suited to
reproducing artists’ drawings created in a single colour.
B.B. Woodward’s Specimens of the Drawings of Ten
Masters, from the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle
published in London in 1870 contained a variety of dif-
ferent coloured and achromatic Carbon prints printed by
Edwards & Kidd. However, a wide range of subject areas
were covered by the Carbon print including medical
treatises such as On Tracheotomy, Especially in Rela-
tion to Diseases of the Larynx and Trachea published
in Philadelphia in 1876.
The Woodburytype, characterised by its rich, dark
shadow detail, was patented in 1864 and rose to promi-
nence during the 1870s. Though the prints were pho-
tomechanical, they were time consuming to print and
then needed to be trimmed and individually mounted.
This degree of labour intensity was to eventually lead
to the processes demise. One of the most notable Wood-
burytype publications was Galerie contemporaine pub-
lished in Paris between 1876 and 1884. The large sized
portraits of eminent French men—almost exclusively
from life—were printed by Goupil et cie, one of the
pre-eminent photographic publishers.
The Collotype, patented in 1869, came of age dur-
ing the 1870s, though the principles behind the process
dated back to the mid 1850s. It differed from the Wood-
burytype since the image could be printed directly onto
the paper support. However, as with the Woodburytype,
the Collotype could not print both image and text to-
gether. The rotary Collotype was announced by the
photographer and printer Joseph Albert (1825–1886)
of Munich in 1873 and in the following year he made
the fi rst colour Collotype. The art critic John Ruskin
(1819–1900) was an earlier adopter of the Collotype
using the process to illustrate his Aratra Pentelici. Six
Lectures on the Elements of Sculpture published in 1872.
John Thomson’s Illustrations of China and its people
was published in London between 1873–1874 and its
218 illustrations were Collotypes.
In the UK two companies were prominent in their
exploitation of Collotype for book illustration; The
Autotype Company was the fi rst fi rm to produce and
market Collotypes through the brand ‘Autotype’ cov-
ered a variety of photographic print processes. The
Heliotype Company, whose printing works was run by
Ernest Edward (1837–1903), was also prominent. In
1872 Edwards moved to Boston to become manager of
the Heliotype Corp., part of the James R. Osgood Co.
that published a range of photographically illustrated
books using the Collotype process.
Photolithography had based its commercial market
on the reproduction of line drawing. During the 1870s
the process was increasingly used to reproduce drawings
that appeared as illustrations in architectural periodicals
such as Building News. The London trade directories
of the 1870s indicate that the number of photolithogra-
phers had more than quadrupled in this decade. James
Akerman was one of the leading exponents. William
Griggs (1832–1911) continued his pioneering photo-
lithographic work. Perhaps the most important work
photolithographed at his works in Peckham, south
London was the reproduction of Pantanjali’s Mahab-
hashya—one of the great Sanskrit grammars written
in the 2nd century BC—from originals borrowed from
Bombay. These were published in 1874 at a cost £6000
less than an estimate put forward by a fi rm who proposed
to copy the manuscript by hand. Griggs, a pioneer of
colour photolithography, also created many photolitho-
graphic illustrations for the infl uential periodical Indian
Antiquary that commenced publication in 1872.
There were sporadic uses of photogravure during
the 1870s. It was the introduction of the practical and
commercially viable process of Karl Klič (1841–1926)
in 1879 that spawned a new chapter in the history of
books illustrated by photography.
Anthony HamberBOOKS ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS: 1870s