collotype

File:Jacob and the Angel.jpg

Collotype originates from the Greek word kolla for (flour paste) glue.{{Cite book |last1=Stulik |first1=Dusan C. |url=https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/pdf/atlas_collotype.pdf |title=Collotype |last2=Kaplan |first2=Art |date=2013 |publisher=The Getty Conservation Institute |isbn=978-1-937433-07-9 |series=The Atlas of Analytical Signatures of Photographic Processes |location=Los Angeles |language=en |access-date=June 9, 2020 |archive-url= |archive-date=}} Poitevin patented collotype printing the same year it was invented in 1855. The process was shown in 1859 by F. Joubert.

In Poitevin's process, a lithographic stone was coated with a light-sensitive gelatin solution and exposed through a photographic negative.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Collotype: printing process|url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/collotype|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906110406/http://www.britannica.com/technology/collotype |archive-date=2015-09-06 |access-date=2021-01-19|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Collotype|url=https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/collotype|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-12|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411014045/https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/collotype |archive-date=2021-04-11 }} The gelatin would harden in exposed areas, leading to the stone becoming hydrophobic in light areas (and thus receptive to the greasy ink) and hydrophilic under dark areas (ink-repelling). The stone was then printed via the standard lithographic process, producing a monochrome print.

In 1865, Tessie du Motay and C. R. Marechal applied the gelatin to a copper plate, which was easier to handle than a lithographic stone. However, the gelatin did not adhere well and limited print runs to about 100.

In 1868, Joseph Albert and Jakub Husník applied a gelatin-albumen mixture to glass, which was then coated with light-sensitized gelatin. This allowed print runs of up to 1,000. This patent was later purchased by Edward Bierstadt, who developed one of the first commercial collotype companies in New York City.Tom Reardon and Kent Kirby, "Collotype: Prince of Printing Process." Printing History 25 (1991): 9.File:Koeln in Bildern, Tafel 45. Der Volksgarten. Teich (uncropped).jpg

The collotype plate is made by coating a plate of glass or metal with a substrate composed of gelatin or other colloid and hardening it. Then it is coated with a thick coat of dichromated gelatin and dried carefully at a controlled temperature (a little over 50° Celsius) so it "reticulates" or breaks up into a finely grained pattern when washed later in approximately 16 °C water. The plate is then exposed in contact with the negative using an ultraviolet (UV) source which changes the ability of the exposed gelatin to absorb water later. The plate is developed by carefully washing out the dichromate salt and dried without heat. The plate is left in a cool dry place to cure for 24 hours before using it to print.

Related processes, or processes developed from collotype, or even alternate names for collotype include albertype, {{proper name|Alethetype}}, autocopyist, artotype, {{proper name|Gelatinotypy}}, heliotype, {{proper name|hydrotype}}, indotint, ink-photo, leimtype, lichtdruck, papyrotype, photogelatin, photophane, phototype, Roto-Collotype, Rye's, and Sinop.{{Cite book|last=Schnauss|first=Julius|url=https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/gutenberg.org/4/9/8/6/49866/49866-h/49866-h.htm#xvii|title=Collotype and Photo-lithography|publisher=Iliffe and Son|year=1889|isbn=|location=London|publication-date=September 3, 2015|pages=|translator-last=Middleton|translator-first=Edward C.}}

In 1874, Joseph Albert produced the first color collotypes with three collotype plates, each inked in a different color. In 1882, the Hoeschtype, which used six plates, was patented.File:The British Museum; the main facade. Collotype after an earl Wellcome V0013517.jpg of the British Museum.]]

File:Horgan's half-tone and photomechanical processes (1913) (14800311473).jpg

Mezzograph was a trade name used by Valentine Co. Ltd. of Scotland, for their multicolored postcards, printed in a hybrid process where colors were printed via photolithography and then overprinted in black or blue collotype for the "outlines" of the image.

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Halftone collotype processes combine halftone printing and collotype. These include the Jaffetype, developed in Vienna; the Aquatone, developed and patented by Robert John in the United States in 1922, in which the gelatin is not reticulated;{{Cite book |last=Tarr |first=John Charles |title=Printing to-day |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1949 |edition=revised |series=The Pageant of Progress, no. 17 |location=London |pages=109 |language=en}} the Gelatone process, introduced in 1939; and the Optak process, introduced in 1946.

Collotype was most often printed in monochrome in various colors of ink, most commonly black, brown, green, blue.{{Cite book|last=Benson|first=Richard|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/438465528|title=The printed picture|publisher=Museum of Modern Art|year=2008|isbn=978-0-87070-721-6|location=New York|pages=243|oclc=438465528}} In double-rolled collotype, the plate was first inked with stiff black ink and then re-inked with a softer colored ink; only one impression was taken.{{Cite book|last=Benson|first=Richard|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/438465528|title=The printed picture|publisher=Museum of Modern Art|year=2008|isbn=978-0-87070-721-6|location=New York|pages=252|oclc=438465528}} This process was most common in fancy postcards.

Collotype has a finely reticulated pattern that captures the tonal shifts of photography with a much more subtle effect that other photographic printing processes of the late 19th century, such as halftone engraving. Under magnification, the edges of the print appear as diffuse fine curved lines, unlike the more defined edges of relief or intaglio prints.{{Cite web|last=Horsfall|first=Craig|date=2017-02-23|title=Identifying collotypes|url=https://thebookandpapergathering.org/2017/02/23/identifying-collotypes/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-12|website=The Book & Paper Gathering|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224201051/https://thebookandpapergathering.org/2017/02/23/identifying-collotypes/ |archive-date=2017-02-24 }}

Richard Benson has described the finnicky nature of collotype printing, primarily problems of registration with damp paper and the varied tones from sheet to sheet. As a young printer during the 1960s, Benson recalled how superstitious the collotype printers were because of the delicacy of the process.

As collotype is a hand-printed process, it can be printed on hand-made paper, which differentiates it from other forms of photographic reproduction.{{Cite book |last=Curwen |first=Harold |title=Processes of graphic reproduction in printing |publisher=Faber and Faber |year=1934 |location=London |pages=123 |language=en}}

The collotype printing process did not achieve commercial viability until Joseph Albert invented the first mechanized collotype press in 1868. Short runs can printed on a proofing press, but longer print runs are carried out on a flatbed machine, where the plate is made square, level and fixed on the bed. The plate is then dampened with a slightly acidic glycerine–water mixture which is selectively absorbed by the different gel hardnesses, blotted before inking with collotype ink using a leather nap or velvet rollers. Best results are achieved with hard finished paper such as Bristol, placed upon the plate and covered with a tympan before slight pressure is applied. The collotype process uses much less pressure than other types of printing, such as lithography, letterpress or intaglio. While it is possible to print by hand using a roller or brayer, the best consistency in pressure and even distribution of ink is most effectively achieved on a mechanized press.

The collotype printing process was used for volume mechanical printing before the introduction of simpler and cheaper offset lithography. It can produce results difficult to distinguish from metal-based photographic prints because of its microscopically fine reticulations which compose the image. Many old postcards are collotypes. Its possibilities for fine art photography were first employed by Alfred Stieglitz in the United States and by the Youzheng and Shenzhou Guoguang publishing houses in China in 1908.Yu-jen Liu, Publishing Chinese Art, Issues of Cultural Reproduction in China, 1905-1918, D.Phil. Thesis, Trinity Term 2010

Because of its ability to print fine detail, it was also used for business cards and invitations with fine script lettering.

File:A woman sitting naked on a chair and smoking. Collotype Wellcome V0048657FA.jpg Animal Locomotion: an Electro-Photographic Investigation of Connective Phases of Animal Movements (1883–86, printed 1887) used collotype to print the photographs.|184x184px]]Eadward Muybridge's Animal Locomotion: an Electro-Photographic Investigation of Connective Phases of Animal Movements (1883–86, printed 1887) was printed in collotype from photographs transferred to gelatin.{{Cite journal|last=Kirby|first=Kent|date=1976|title=The Collotype Printing Process: A Proposal for Its Revival|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1573550|journal=Leonardo|volume=9|issue=3|pages=183–186|doi=10.2307/1573550|jstor=1573550|s2cid=191386482|issn=0024-094X|url-access=subscription}}

After collotype had fallen out of commercial use, artists began to experiment with the process. Pablo Picasso's 1920 artist's book Le Tricorne was printed in (black) collotype with applied pochoir color.{{Cite web|title=Pablo Picasso. Le Tricorne. 1920|url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/29284|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-12|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171103212659/https://www.moma.org/collection/works/29284 |archive-date=2017-11-03 }} Surrealist Max Ernst printed the frottages in the portfolio Natural History (1926) in collotype.{{Cite web |title=Max Ernst, Natural History (Histoire naturelle), c. 1925, published 1926 |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/10056 |access-date=2021-01-20 |website=The Museum of Modern Art |language=en}} Marcel Duchamp's La Boîte-en-valise (Box in a Suitcase), produced in the 1930s and 1940s, combines the techniques of collotype and stencil to create its "copies."{{Cite web |title=Box in a Valise |url=https://www.guggenheim-venice.it/en/art/works/box-in-a-valise/ |access-date=2023-01-25 |website=Peggy Guggenheim Collection |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Judovitz |first=Dalia |date=2005 |title=Duchamp's "Luggage Physics": Art on the Move |url=http://pmc.iath.virginia.edu/issue.905/16.1judovitz.html |journal=Postmodern Culture |volume=905 |pages=13 |via=University of Virginia Library}} Gerhard Richter's Mao (1968) is a collotype portrait of Mao Zedong.Weitman, Wendy (2004), [https://www.moma.org/collection/works/60106?sov_referrer=art_term&art_term_id=23 "Gerhard Richter: Mao,"] in Deborah Wye, Artists and Prints: Masterworks from The Museum of Modern Art, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2004, p. 180.

As of 1983, there were only two commercial collotype firms in the United States,{{Cite book |last=Chayt |first=Steven |title=Collotype: Being a History-Practium-Bibliography |last2=Chayt |first2=Meryl |publisher=Anachronic Editions |year=1983 |location=Winter Haven, FL |pages=2}} and as of 1997, there were no commercial collotype printers in the United States.{{Cite book|last=Defibaugh|first=Denis|url=https://scholarworks.rit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4828&context=theses|title=The Collotype: & History, Process, Photographic Documentation [MA Thesis]|publisher=Rochester Institute of Technology|year=1997|isbn=|location=Rochester, NY|pages=}} As of 2015, there were two commercial collotype printers in Kyoto, Japan.{{Cite web|last=Zhang|first=Michael|date=May 26, 2015|title=A Look at Benrido, One of the Last Collotype Printers in the World|url=https://petapixel.com/2015/05/26/a-look-at-benrido-one-of-the-last-collotype-printers-in-the-world/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150531091013/http://petapixel.com/2015/05/26/a-look-at-benrido-one-of-the-last-collotype-printers-in-the-world/ |archive-date=2015-05-31 |access-date=2021-01-20|website=Peta Pixel}} In Europe, the firm Fratelli Alinari (Florence) and Lichtdruck-Kunst (Leipzig) still produce collotypes, primarily as high-quality art reproductions for museums.{{Cite book|last1=Thirkell|first1=Paul|url=https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1005957/the-reproduction-conservation-and-creation-of-artwork-through-the-collotype-printing-process|title=Printed on Paper: The Techniques, History and Conservation of Printed Media|last2=Hill|first2=Victoria|publisher=Northumbria University|year=2009|isbn=|editor-last=Colborne|editor-first=J|location=Newcastle|pages=165–9|language=En|chapter=The reproduction, conservation and creation of artwork through the Collotype Printing Process|editor-last2=Fisherman Snyder|editor-first2=R}}

In 2010, only a small number of facilities in the United States, primarily art studios or organizations, still have the ability to create collotypes.

File:Arapaho woman Pretty Nose, 1879, restored.jpg|Pretty Nose, collotype with black ink, 1879.

File:Photo-engraving and photo-lithography in line and in half-tone, also collotype and heliotype (titel op object), RP-F-2001-7-451.jpg|alt=A book opening showing on the left a collotype of a woman seated in a studio, while the right is the title page reading "Photo-Engraving"|Collotype (on left page), 1887.

File:Baltimore Orioles and New York Giants, Temple Cup Series - DPLA - 370417303719ed746ed249e88fa594d6.jpg|Collotype reproduction of original painting by Henry Sandham, 1896.

File:Bernard, Claude (1813-1878) CIPA0598.jpg|Collotype in black ink of a painting, 19th century.

File:Guilherme Gaensly - Avenida Paulista II, Acervo do Museu Paulista da USP (cropped).jpg|Collotype with green ink, 1908.

File:Horgan's half-tone and photomechanical processes (1913) (14778035584).jpg|Collotype in sepia ink, 1913.

File:Koeln in Bildern, Tafel 54. Das Moltke-Denkmal.jpg|Collotype in blue-grey ink.

File:Kazumasa Ogawa (Japanese - Tree Pæony - Google Art Project.jpg|Hand-colored collotype, 1896.

File:Guilherme Gaensly - São Paulo - Jardim da Luz III, Acervo do Museu Paulista da USP 2 (cropped).jpg|Collotype with handprinted color, 1900.

File:Edward Burne-Jones Witches Tree (Flower Book).png|alt=A woman in a brown cloak stares at a figure in a black cloak among greenery and flowers.|Edward Burne-Jones' The Flower Book (1905), collotype with applied pochoir.

File:Frankfurt Am Main-Morgenstern-KAVFFM-010-Mainbruecke und Sachsenhausen in Frankfurt a M.jpg|Collotype (of an engraving) with applied watercolor, 1913.

File:272 BIARRITZ. - Vue générale et les Pyrénées. - LL. (3021802285).jpg|alt=Postcard of a coastal scene with the ocean on the right and a city on the left|Postcard of Biarritz, collotype print with applied color, ca. 1916.

File:Washington D.C. - White House - 1877 LCCN2017648282.jpg|Hand-colored collotype, ca. 1877–1920.

File:Carte postale ancienne de Chéméré 20.jpg|Collotype with brown and blue ink.

File:MaryPickford4.jpg|Lobby card of Mary Pickford, 1921.

File:Marc Gazelle-lichtdruck.jpg|alt=Gazelle by Franz Marc|Gazelle by Franz Marc, 1923: a collotype reproduction of a painting.

{{Reflist}}

• Defibaugh, Denis (1997). [https://scholarworks.rit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4828&context=theses The Collotype: & History, Process, Photographic Documentation [MA Thesis]]. Rochester, NY: Rochester Institute of Technology.
• Dusan C. Stulik, Art Kaplan, [https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/pdf/atlas_collotype.pdf Collotype]. Getty Conservation Institute, 2013 (Atlas of Analytical Signatures of Photographic Processes)
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNRo5AomkXM Video of collotype printing at Benrido Press], Kyoto, Japan (2009).
• http://collotype-vienna.com

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Category:Photographic processes dating from the 19th century

Category:Printing processes

Category:French inventions