955
the Ferrotype plates made in photograph booths of the
slot automate named “Bosco automat” (Conrad Bernitt,
Hamburg, 1895; Budapest, 1896) were folded up around
the picture, and the inscriptions came on them such as
“Millennial souvenir 1896 Budapest.”
Demanding customers could enrich their collections
with artworks made with more and more modern tech-
nologies, and the qualities of the pictures demanded
spectacular installations. Matte Collodion Printing-Out
Paper, Platinotype, Platinum print, Palladiotype, Palladi-
um Print, Palladio Paper, Starkepapier were photographs
rich in shades of tones with artful effects. The products
of noble procedures—like Pigment Print, Carbon Print,
Gum Print, Papyrographie, Oil, or Oil Transfer—were
painting-like artistic photographs, therefore they were
put in passe-partout much larger than the original
picture, which was of course in accordance with the
fashion of the era, and they received specially formed
secessionist wooden frames.
In the last third of the 19th century the majority of
photographic products were made by studios. At the
same time, however, the cover or back of the photo-
graphs served as an excellent advertising surface for the
photographer to list his name, site of operation, awards
and prices of the studio’s products. The typography on
the back and at the edges followed the characteristic
styles of other applied graphical products which entailed
richly decorated fi rm logos, and medals awarded at ex-
hibitions set into heraldic patterns and were displayed
as such. Printed documents serving offi cial and social
purposes like letter headings, menu cards, invitations,
ball-programmes, memorial certifi cates, advertisements,
programmes, and boxes of photographic raw materials
were all made in a manner following the similar eclectic
tastes. Graphics and illustrated papers, multiplied by the
ease of printing, fl ooded the main stream by the end of
the century, and photographs were no exception.
Sometimes for personal use, pressed fl owers were
placed around the photograph in the corners of the
passe-partout and it was thus framed. Print-clips, mostly
of coloured fl owers, were purchased in shops and often
replaced real fl owers, but some photographers copied
or enlarged the photographs on designed cartons for
unique designs.
The passe-partouts of enlarged photographs were
mainly decorated by traditional ornaments, usually with
one or more thin or thick line on the edge, while other
printed materials like devotional pictures often had
decorations in the corners. Embossed edges—gilded
or not—were also common.
Three tendencies prevailed in the history of framing
and installation of photographs. Formerly used and
applied forms of high art and popular culture were
inherited, which directly inspired methods of fram-
ing pictures through the use of various technologies
throughout various eras, including the placement of pic-
ture so that it appeared in a mirror. Unique forms were
developed particularly for the products of photography
and were contigent upon the norms of the different
time periods, which adapted to changing technologies.
Specialists in serial production and standard forms often
produced these forms. A great number of individual
variations were also characteristic of framing and in-
stalling photographs however, and were conceived as
the unique image creating process. These objects were
not, or were only partial works of specialists. They
were common in the second half of the 19th century,
and were characteristic of the increasing number of
photographs which were made to order, and for private
use. Even if the photographs were placed in purchased
prefabricated frames or ones ordered from specialists,
often the one giving the present or the user added their
own modifi cations to the frame, passe-partout, or even
to the photograph itself.
The wooden frame was often modifi ed with skin,
velvet or other textile covering which was typically
embroidered or covered with other various decorations.
The passe-partout usually had real pressed fl owers or
later, fl owers cut from prints or drawn fl owers or leaves
placed on it. The photograph itself often had a dedication
or message on it. The most archaic variation is the rhym-
ing portrait welcoming letter, which was well known by
villagers of eastern towns and villages of the Carpathian
Basin. The sender of photographs like these commonly
wrote quasi-folklore poems on the photograph or its
back, with the idea that the photograph acted on behalf of
the person which served to welcome new members of the
family, cite complaints, or to ask for accommodations.
Photographs were created for individual use, and were
most often portraits, group photographs, and sometimes
photographs of a landscape or a building. These photo-
graphs adapted to the functions of decoration and to the
idea of the object. In one or more places, and in differ-
ent ways and forms, the photograph expressed personal
contact. Different means of installation and framing of
the photograph primarily fulfi lled this function. The
individual’s tastes, skills, education, and the social status
of the photographer automatically refl ected this.
Klára Fogarasi
See also: Calotype and Talbotype; Daguerreotypes;
Wet Collodion Positive Processes; Collodion;
Printing-Out Processes; Tableaux; Carte-de-Visite;
Cabinet Cards; and Tintype (Ferrotype, Melainotype).Further Reading
Ehlich, Werner, Bild und Rahmen im Altertum—Die Geschichte
des Bilderrahmes, 1954.
En collaboration avec le soleil Victor Hugo photographies de
l’exil, Heilbrun, Francoise, Molinari, Danielle, Paris 1998.
Falke, Jacob, Rahmen, Wien, 1892.