LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS. 205 



be desired : the velvet can be readily applied and at the same time preserved from 

 creasing by beiDg pasted on to paper, the edges of which can be turned over 

 and pasted round the glass ; it is, however, an improvement if the picture be first 

 coated with a film of transparent varnish, such as gum damar or powdered 

 amber dissolved in chloroform, and run on the plate in the same way as the 

 collodion : this not ouly prevents the velvet from rubbing the picture, and the 

 paste from acting on it chemically, but also imparts to it something of that beauti- 

 ful tone which marks the pictures when wet and which they lose ou drying. It is a 

 slight objection to the above method that the velvet will often exhibit a whitening 

 of its threads, but more serious is the objection arising from its expeusiveness : a 

 cheaper method has accordingly been employed by pouring a black varnish (such 

 as the black Japan, or Coachmaker's varnish) over the picture, but in order to 

 prevent the whites of the picture from being affected, it is necessary first to give a 

 coating of the transparent varnish above mentioned, and even then, this object is 

 not fully attained ; for, the solveut of the two varnishes being the same, they act 

 on each other and cannot be removed without destroying the collodion film ; this 

 defect is, however, obviated by using for the black a water-varnish instead of a 

 bituminous one ; that used by bootmakers for polishing patentdeather is found 

 to answer perfectly, it dries readily and can at any time be dissolved off without 

 injuring the film of transparent varnish or the picture. A third method has been 

 proposed of applying a black varnish to the other side of the plate; this, how- 

 ever, has the great drawback of presenting objects in reverse like the Da- 

 guerreotype. 



For painting the pictures on glass, three ways are open : either to lay dry colour 

 on the collodion picture as in the Daguerreotype, or to varnish with a transparent 

 film, and paint in either oil or water colours on that, or lastly, to paint on the 

 reverse side of the plate : either of these methods is good enough for such as affect 

 thi3 meretricious style. 



For colouring positives on paper, the most obvious mode is to apply colour to the 

 face of the picture, in fact to make a painting of it, so that it ceases to be a 

 41 Photograph " and becomes a picture, by the hand of an artist more or less skilful, 

 of which the outline only has been sketched by Photography. Another method 

 however has been proposed, and was published in the Genie Industrie^ by M. 

 Minotto, and a patent seems to have been taken out for it in England by a Mons. 

 Duppa, in July, although there can be little doubt that this must have been 

 granted through inadvertence, as its claim could not possibly be supported. This 

 consists in applying to positives on paper the process used many years ago for colour- 

 ing Lithographs, under the title of CnnoMO-LiTiioGKAr-nY ; for this purpose the paper 

 was varnished or waxed so as to be rendered transparent, and the colours were 

 daubed upon the reverse side so as to shine through. Though iuartistic in the 

 extreme, this work is said to give passable results. 



There can be no doubt that these plans of colouring Photographs, however 

 repugnant to science, are legitimate exercises of art, and furnish a cheap and easy 

 mode of supplying portraits without uny heavy call either on the purse of the 

 patron or the skill of the artist; but a system extensively pursued in the United 

 States must bo placed in quite a different category. Wo have reason to believe 

 that hardly a photograph issues from a professional gallery in the U. S. which has 

 not been first doctored by the Manipulator, touching up and supplementing defective 

 bits, and painting over and obliterating blotches and blemishes. This practice 



