RARE! Two Antique Platinograph photographs of English actress, Mary Mannering, as Janice Meredith in the Broadway play of the same name.
In 1901 actress Mary Mannering created buying a sensation playing the lead role in the historical drama 'Janice Meredith," the tale of a loyalist girl who aids the patriot cause and juggles suitors across the political spectrum. The title character was a teenage girl with an engagingly obnoxious attraction to genteel young men, an underdeveloped sense of political responsibility, and a curious obliviousness to her own attractiveness. In short, she was not a stock character, but a personality. The show was a major hit, in part because of the American cultural fashion for the colonial revival, and in part because author Paul Liester Ford was murdered by his famous athlete brother during the run.
Three pages of the 1901 calendar with two platinograps are up for auction.
The paper calendar sheets are in poor condition.
The photos are in beautiful shape with little or no fading. They are, however, pasted at the top edges to the cardboard calendar.
Platinographs are clear even after many years - no sepia toning, no degradation as you would likely see in most gelatin silver photos. There is also a depth and reality to the photos of this type. A similar or same process as Calotype, where a weak salt solution was used, the paper dried, then brushed with a weak silver nitrate solution. This made a silver chloride on the paper and was light sensitive. The final image was fixed using a salt solution called potassium iodide of hypo..
Calendar pages 11 x 14
Platinograph photos 7 x 8 c. 1900
Antique photography processes, early photography.
Product code: RARE! Two Antique Platinograph buying Photos, Actress Mary Mannering, 1901 Calender