Information and discussion on all aspects of British photographic history
Hello everyone,
My first post regards a mystery -- at least to me.
I purchased this object for a few £'s at a charity shop in Christchurch, England, because: 1) it clearly seemed to have something to do with photography, and 2) I had no idea what that might be.
It's made by Johnsons of Hendon, a firm, I understand, that was for many decades a major supplier of photography-related chemicals and equipment. But beyond that easily obtainable fact (the nameplate is on the front of the drawer), I have been unable to find out anything else about what this might have been used for.
Can anyone help shed light on this?
Best wishes,
Arthur [Research Scientist (retired), Photographer (avocationally active), and Digital Artist (aspiring)]
Tags:
It's a negative retouching desk. I may be able to find a description in one of their catalogues.
Thank you Michael. Mystery solved -- came to the right place, obviously!
Googling "negative retouching desk", it looks like this one might be missing the upper overhanging lid (?)
I would indeed be interested to see a description in their catalogue, if locatable.
lovely.... you brits have the good stuff...
cant find anything like that here in the states.
A couple of desks. Some later ones would electrically vibrate allowing the retoucher to use abrasion tools to scrape of part of the image. Not much in favor nowadays however.
Thanks Richard -- very interesting.
(Hmm, I wonder if Adobe can add a tool to Photoshop simulating electrical vibration?)
I think it is there now, a texture brush. I searched vibrator to see if there was anything that might be an add-on. Sort of, but not quite what I was looking for.
--Dick
Arthur Margolin said:
Thanks Richard -- very interesting.
(Hmm, I wonder if Adobe can add a tool to Photoshop simulating electrical vibration?)
Thought you might like to see this photograph. It is of a similar retouching desk in the workshop of E Chambre Hardman.
The Hardmn House is run by the National Trust and is a unique resource being the complete studios and darkrooms of this well known Liverpool Photographer. It is well worth a visit but advance booking is essential. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hardmans-house. Roger
There is also one in the Kodak Gallery of the Bradford Science and Media Museum and you can see one similar being advertised by Percy Lund in his 1887 catalogue.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t7dr6qh0q;vie...
and also a slightly different designed one by Passingham, most probably Edmund Passingham of Bradford and Brighton shown in Percy Lunds Photographers World July 1888. See scan.
Best Regards
Steve Lightfoot
Many thanks, Roger and Steve...fascinating to see this additional material, providing greater context for my erstwhile mysterious box.
Best wishes,
Arthur
P.S. Tangentially:
Roger -- I must say that that's a particularly cool looking lamp in in the upper right hand corner of the desk....the arthropod look!
Steve -- I'd never heard of "deal" wood before, learned via google that ' "Deal' is a word, used mostly in the UK, to refer to unspecified inexpensive softwood, usually pine. There are no real characteristics that define deal; anything that is cheap, soft, and generally nondescript would qualify as deal."
Thank you Charles -- that one's a beauty. Interesting to see the associated paraphernalia too....
Best wishes,
Arthur
Charles Herbert said:
Here is another example that was sold today.
http://specialauctionservices.com/large/cm021117/lot0149.html
It is a Coles Improved Retouching Desk sold by Marion and Co, 22 and 23 Soho Square, London. This or earlier models were made from 1883.
Victoria and Albert Museum's photography collection
National Science and Media Museum
RPS Journal 1853-2012 online and searchable
Photographic History Research Centre, Leicester
Birkbeck History and Theory of Photography Research Centre
William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné
British Photography. The Hyman Collection
The Press Photo History Project Mapping the photo agencies and photographers of Fleet Street and the UK
The correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot
Historic England Archive
UAL Photography and Photography and the Archive Research Centre
Royal Photographic Society's Historical Group
www.londonstereo.com London Stereoscopic Company / T. R. Williams
www.earlyphotography.co.uk British camera makers and companies
Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock.
National Portrait Gallery, London
http://www.freewebs.com/jb3d/
Alfred Seaman and the Photographic Convention
Frederick Scott Archer
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