Daguerreotypes

Eleanor Ghey <e.ghey [at] nmsi__ac__uk> writes

>I have come across a daguerreotype where the image appears to have
>'faded' completely, leaving a uniform light silver surface. This
>seems distinct from the deterioration caused by tarnishing of the
>silver plate on some other examples in this collection.
>
>I have been told that the daguerreotype process does not produce
>images vulnerable to light damage; is this always the case?

The folks at the Science Museum queried me separately on the topic
of their daguerreian jewellery. I said that without actually
examining the pieces in question, I suspect that what they are
seeing is "sublimed" or "evaporated" mounting waxes on the inside
of the coverglasses. Daguerreian jewellery that I have seen is
usually mounted in its bezel using some sort of mounting wax to hold
the daguerreian package together. With some heating on display, I
could see that these waxes might be deposited on the inside surface
of the glass.

M. Susan Barger, Ph.D.
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:2
                  Distributed: Thursday, June 29, 2000
                        Message Id: cdl-14-2-004
                                  ***