See an account of him in M‘Crie's Hist. of the Reformation in Italy, pp. 77. 115. &c.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.
Mounting Positives.—If the print and the mounting paper, or Bristol board, are both made equally damp, and the back of the picture covered with thin paste, they adhere without any unevenness; and if the print is on the fine Canson's paper, the appearance is that of an India proof. They should remain until perfectly dry in a press.
H. W. Diamond.
Mounting of Photographs, and Difficulties in the Wax-paper Process.—May I request a little additional information from your correspondent Seleucus, Vol. ix., p. 310., respecting the mounting of photographs? Does he mean merely the painting the edges, or the smearing of the photograph all over its back with the Indian-rubber glue, prior to sticking the proof on the cardboard? If the former, which I apprehend he does, Seleucus will necessarily have the unsightly appearance of the picture's buckling up in the middle on the board being bent forward and backward in different directions? May I take the liberty of asking him in what respect the plan proposed is superior to that of painting over the edges with mucilage of gum arabic, containing a little brown sugar to prevent its cracking, allowing it to dry, and prior to the placing it on the card, slightly moistening it; a plan superior to that of putting it on the board at first, as all risk of a portion of the gum oozing out at the edges is thereby avoided.
I have long been in the habit of mounting prints and photographs in a way which prevents their buckling, keeps the paper underneath quite smooth, and in other respects is so perfect, that it positively defies the distinguishing of the picture from the paper on which it is mounted. I am not certain that my plan is applicable to the mounting on card-board, as it cannot be wetted and stretched, thinking it useless to make use of such a costly material when a tolerably thick drawing-paper will more than serve the same purpose at a very considerably less expense, seeing that the photograph thus mounted bears a much closer resemblance
to that of a good and costly print. A good plain or tinted sheet of drawing-paper, 30 inches by 22, may be obtained at the artists' colour shops for sixpence, sufficiently large for two drawings, 9 inches by 11, allowing a sufficient margin.
After various trials, the plan I have found decidedly the best is the following:—Soak the drawing-paper in a vessel of water for ten minutes, or until it appears by its flaccidity to have become perfectly saturated; put it at once into an artist's stretching frame, brush over the back of the photograph with rather thin and perfectly smooth paste, allow it a few minutes to imbibe a portion of the moisture of the paste, and then lay it smoothly down on the damp paper now on the stretching frame, of course carefully pressing out all air bubbles as you gradually, beginning at one side, smooth down the pasted picture. It should remain in a dry place (not placed before a fire) until the whole has become quite dry, about ten or twelve hours. It may then be taken out of the frame, cut to the desired shape, and a single or double line nicely drawn around the picture, at a distance suitable to each individual's taste, by the help of sepia-coloured ink and a crowquill pen, both of which may also be bought at the artists' colour shop. Should it be required to be still more nicely mounted, and to appear to have been one and the same paper originally, the back edges of the picture should, previous to laying on the paste, be rubbed down to a fine and knife-like edge with a piece of the finest sand-paper placed on a wine cork, or substance of a similar size. The drawing-paper should be of the same shade and tint as the ground of the photograph.
A novice in the wax-paper process (having heretofore worked the collodion and calotype, from its very desirable property of keeping long good after being excited, i. e. the wax paper), I am very desirous of getting over an unexpected difficulty in its manipulation; and if some one of the many liberal-minded contributors to your justly wide-spread periodical, well versed in that department of the art, would lend me a helping hand in my present difficulty, I should feel more than obliged for the kindness thereby conferred.