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electrotype daguerreotype plates, in 1841 he made por-
traits for Charles Wheatstone’s stereoscope and in 1842
put photography to practical use by making calotype
copies of part of the Treaty of Nanking. He considered
the possibility of exploiting Herschel’s glass negative
process and in the 1860’s proposed a system of colour
photography. The collections at the National Museum
of Photography, Bradford and George Eastman House
include examples of Collen’s work.
John Ward
COLLIE, WILLIAM (1810–1896)
Scottish photographer, worked in Jersey, Channel
Islands
William Collie was born in Skene, Aberdeenshire,
Scotland in October 1810 and like many other early
photographers, started his professional life as a portrait
painter. He moved south and is recorded as living at St.
Helier on Jersey in the Channel Islands before 1841,
where he had a portrait business. He became one of the
earliest photographers working in the Channel Isles,
operating from Belmont House, St. Helier until 1872.
Another photographer (J. Collie) is recorded at the same
address between 1861–64, this was probably his wife
or other relation.
Collie was not merely a provincial studio portrait
photographer. In the late 1840s he made a series of genre
calotype portraits depicting “French and Jersey Market-
women” which were well received by the photography
critic of the Art Union (June 1, 1847), who compared
them to the work of David Octavius Hill (1802–1870).
The studies were later exhibited at the London Great
Exhibition of 1851.
In 1860 Collie is known to have made a photograph
of the total eclipse of the sun, which occurred on July
18th.
The Société Jersaise has a collection of his work, as
does the National Museum of Photography Film and
Television, Bradford, England.
Ian Sumner
COLLOTYPE
Not to be confused with calotype, this dichromated
colloid process uses the tanning effect of light on di-
chromated gelatin, whereby the hardened parts retain
greasy ink that can be transferred onto paper, porcelain,
or a variety of other supports. This planographic process
was invented by Alphonse Poitevin (1819–1882) in 1855
(Fr. Pat. 24,592, Aug. 27; the Engl. Pat. 2,816 of Dec.
13, 1855 is not as complete) and can be considered the
fi rst practical process of photolithography.
Poitevin’s original invention made use of a light-sen-
sitive emulsion that consisted of a mixture of colloids
such as albumin, gelatin, gum arabic, etc., coated on the
surface of a regular lithographic stone. After exposure,
the resulting matrix was washed with cold water and
printed much the same way as an ordinary lithographic
stone. On October 27, 1857, Poitevin sold his French
and foreign patents to Deraine, who, the following day,
sold them to Lemercier, the well-known Paris lithogra-
pher. Lemercier, who had been using a primitive form
of photolithography, preferred Poitevin’s process as
it could provide up to 700 impressions from a stone.
Poitevin was keeping fi ve percent (5%) of all net profi ts
between Aug. 27, 1863 and Aug. 27, 1870.
Once improved, this new technology was commer-
cialized in France in 1857 by Lemercier and in 1860, by
Ferdinand Joubert, under the name phototype. Although
successful, the process was apparently seldom used
but was revived in 1867 by MM. Tessié du Motay, and
Maréchal (de Metz) under the name phototypie. Joseph
Albert, of Munich, signifi cantly improved the process in
1868 under the name Albertype. Albert’s improvementsCOLLOTYPE
Berthaud, Michel. Observatoire de Paris. Cours d’Astronomie.
Ecole Polytechnique. Portefeuille des eleves. Cercle Meridien.
Collimateur zenithal. Diametre de l’Objectif 0m. 19. Distance
focale 2m. 325 (donne par Mr. Bishoccsheim).
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © The J. Paul Getty
Museum.