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like heraldic symbols and traditional place-fi lling mo-
tives in a style typical of the era and applied illustrative
elements of printed materials. However, unlike the for-
merly common family trees, photographs of half-length,
three-quarter and full portraits of the family members
appeared above the inscriptions of their names.
The second half of the 19th century photography
aimed at conquering other spheres of everyday life. In
1854 photographers became interested in placing pho-
tographs on china and marble. Ceramic Photographs
and Porcelain Photographs were placed on the sides and
bottoms of coffee and tea sets, fl owerpots, jugs, plates,
fruit-dishes, bonbonnières, ashtrays, jewel-cases, vases,
cups, decanters, pendants, brooches, pipe-heads, desk-
sets, and. The spatial form itself and its presentation
coupled with the photographs, and subsequently painted
ornamental motives, created the specially shaped artistic
mounting and the essence of custom work.
Additionally, mourning family members placed pho-
tographs on gravestones for quite some time. The pri-
mary function and purpose of photographs was realised
here. The medium, which bore the photograph, was itself
the installation and at the same time the material and
place of use, being the last resting-place of the ancestor,
all coalesced to capture the exact and most basic reason
for photography. It was in this way that the photograph
retained the image of the deceased person “to the end
of times” and displayed it for all to see.
In the 1860’s and 1870’s visit cards, portraits of cabi-
net pictures, and also newspaper clips and other pictures
were made with Albumen Print, Alboidin—Protalbin Pa-
per, Matt Albumin—Albumat Paper, Solio Printing-out
Paper, Ferroprussiate, Sepia Paper processes, and other
different technologies and were placed in expensive
and decorative photo albums of all sizes. These albums
had wooden covers bound in elegant cordovan-leather,
calfskin, or velvet decorated with embossment, intaglio
printing with gilded metal inlays, or hand-painted or
-embroidered fl owers. These objects were important
pieces of furnishing for drawing rooms. Their compi-
lation and exhibition was a fashionable occupation of
aristocratic women and studying them was a popular
social activity.
At the end of the 1870’s, photographs became parts
of the interior decoration in decorative frames. They
were placed on pianos or chests of drawers. The frames
were still works of art, and their material, and elaborate
design generally matched the culture, like that of Victo-
rian England. These frames were made of ivory, solid
glass with gilded or engraved edges, they were carved
and/or engraved, painted wood, gilded or had silvered
metals or nickel, and had plush velvet stamped with
embroidered fl ower decorations, and complicated or
even simple ornaments. Also “quasi” forms of frames
were produced, like easels, doghouses, horseshoes,
hearts pierced by an arrow, etc., but by this time, the
Oxford-form already had a simple design.
Besides the prevailing modern style frames, picture
mountings of former eras, generations, and periods of
history remained in use not only because of their own
values, but mainly because of the sentiments relating to
the images, as was the case of portraits, which served
as a visual historical image of a person that a particluar
family wanted to respect. If a member of the family
passed on, often his/her’s image played an organic part
in the furnishings of the home.
In the last decades of the 19th century, a procedure
was developed which used a new solution, technology,
and materials. The golden age of Opalotype was de-
veloped in the 1890’s. Mainly landscape photographs
were made for tourists in important places they wanted
to remember. These photographs were applied into
souvenirs, desk sets, porcelain trinkets, and into objects
later worn as jewellery.
Due to the invention of quick photographs, more in-
expensive materials, technological processes, more and
more middle to lower class people could afford to buy
photographs. Consequently, the usage of photographs
in terms of materials, technologies, and decoration
changed as did the formerly established norms of what
photographs looked like in terms of tastes and style.
Less spectacular but more durable, were cheap pan-
notypes which were seldom installed, but in the case that
they were, it contained a modest passe-partout, glass
and a wooden frame. Penny photographs, ferrotypes
were seldom placed under glass and were mainly not
installed. Their more respected variations were accom-
panied by paper passe-partout, which were framed with
gilded prints and edge ornaments, similarly to religious
lithographs.
A special camera with more lenses, was developed
for this purpose and very small Ferrotypes (1.5 × 2.2
cm in size), otherwise know as “gems” were made in
America. They were applied into different types of
jewellery like brooches, pins, pendants, or onto simple
white cards, and into special, small-sized albums. One
or two of these gems could be placed onto one page of
an album (“Cambridge” Album, 1867), and later, even
more appeared a page where one could see 3, 4, 5, or 6
at a time (Remick and Rice, Massachusetts). In the oval
cut out around the picture an embossed ornament could
be arranged, like a simple geometric or fl ower pattern
with colouring. Albums with rich miniature decorations
were also made for American aristocracy, while the fam-
ily albums of the middle class had no decoration at all.
The fashion of decorative, coloured cards and albums
reached Europe and Australia from America as well. Eu-
ropeans were familiar with many English, American and
Australian photograph albums on which tintypes were
built into visit cards. Similarly, in Europe, the edges of