I am currently doing a study of this publication. It first appeared in 1895 and continued until the 1982. It charts the advancement of the reproduction of photography in print, often known as photomechanical work. My interest is in the evolution of photographic materials for this work from the 19th Century up to around 1930. However, this annual contains much more on photographic history and I am interested in the perspective of others on this.
An overview of the publication appeared in The Photographic Journal of 1964. Copies can be found in various libraries. The National Arts Library at the V&A has a set and the Museaum of Printing has produced this index of the volumes. I am studying the copies in the archives of the Manchester Central Library.
The Pictorial Annual contains plentiful illustrations that show the current technologies of photo reproduction in a particular year. Some are bound directly into the book but ofhers on more specialist papers are tipped in. A beautiful resource for the photo historian. My plan is to add more to this post as my research progresses.
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Worth adding a comment here on the relevance to British Photographic History.
The reproduction of photographs in publications did a great deal to publicise photography. This Annual shows the technologies by year and includes real examples.
Thanks Ian. Just re-read the PH article - very useful perspective.
There may be one extra article to add to your Penrose list for EAB, due to his association with Arthur Cox Illustrating Co Ltd. On p13 of the advertising section at the back of the 1903-04 edition there is a page from Arthur Cox Illustrating Co Ltd illustrating the growth of half tone work 1895-1903 in graphical form. Just the sort of quantified approach I imaging EAB would have favoured.
I read his 1904-05 article "The dry plate in Process work" yesterday and this may reflect where Arthur Cox Illustrating Co Ltd in terms of the transition from wet to dry plates for process work. His judgement was that wet plates were still in the lead for monochrome half-tone work but dry plate were now a strong contender. Process plates are OK for line work but unsuitable for half-tone because of low speed. For line work the wet plate better and cheaper. Ordinary plates have their use due to speed but grain is high. Overall I read the article as a "wish list" for manufacturers in terms of dry plate characteristics.
Glad that was of interest. Thank you for these points.
You might be interested to read the article I wrote for the RPS Photo Historian (192/Spring 2022) about the Birningham Autochrome pioneer E A Bierman. EAB seems to have struck a good relationship with Penrose Pictorial and was published on nearly 20 occasions between about 1900-1920. The Museum of Printing, MA were very helpful when I was researching EABs work.
Thanks Steve. I had not come across the work of Percy Lund - I will look out for it as I read more of the Annuals. I hadn't noted who printed the Annuals I have read so far. I will go back and check the printers from 1896 as it looks from your article that it will have been done by Lund.
Henry Snowden Ward is a name I recognise but only from the 1890s when he was in London. I had missed the Lund / Bradford connection. He contributed an article to the 1896 edition of Penrose " Trade Journals and Process-Mongers" but in addition to his work in printing I find him appearing in the early days of X-ray photography. I see you have an image of the Isenthal equipment in your article. I have some research on that connection if you are interested. My interest in Snowden Ward is that he appears to be a knowledge bridge between the X-ray and Process communities at a time when the materials were developing.
Excellent article. It adds a further dimension to my studies.
Hi Steve. More on this. I checked the 1896 edition of the Process Year Book - printed by The Cranford Press of Chiswick but the 1902 edition (now Penrose's Pictorial Annual) was indeed printed by Percy Lund, Humphries & Co Ltd. This article suggests the transition took place in 1897. Thanks to Janine Freeston for pointing out the Eye article.
Thanks again for the background on this.
Hi Alan
You might be interested in a book by Charles Lubelski, it is called Pride Passion and Printing. Its about Lund Humphries and chapter 12 has information on the Penrose Annual
Steve
Hi Alan
You may be interested in some research I did on Percy Lund and his business Lund Humphries
https://sites.google.com/site/leedsandbradfordstudios/home/percy-lund
Steve Lightfoot
Really interesting, Steve. Do you know where there might be any extant runs of The Photographer's World?
Hi Michael
I have about 25 copies
Steve
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