Dorset History Centre acquired this album of beautiful albumen prints recently. Whilst the front cover is missing and there is some foxing to the pages, the prints are in remarkably good condition considering the age of them.
Albumen prints date from 1850 when they were invented by Louis Désiré Blanquat-Evrard and were in regular use until the early 1900’s. Albumen prints consist of egg albumen, which was used to ‘bind’ the salt and silver nitrate so that the silver did not penetrate the paper, providing a smoother finish to the image, with a slight sheen – double coating with egg albumen provided a greater sheen, whilst post 1870, albumen prints were often waxed for an even glossier finish. Knowing this helps us to roughly date an albumen print and judging by the reasonable but not strong sheen on these beautiful prints, they are likely to be pre-1870. Typically of albumen prints, the paper is super thin, and the photographs have been attached to a heavier weight paper within the album.
The images themselves show a range of areas including Bournemouth, Ryde Pier and Ventnor and Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. We love the ones of the Bath Hotel, Bournemouth and the Chine Hotel at Boscombe, it’s so interesting to see how things have changed. There is a lovely photograph of Branksome Chine and another of Bournemouth from East Cliff. These really show the lay of the landscape and how the places have changed. Do you recognise the Pine Walk at Lower Westover Gardens?
