Albumen Print

Manufacturing

A sheet of fine, high-quality paper is floated on a bath of albumen (egg white) mixed with sodium or ammonium chloride. Once dry, the albumen-coated sheet is sensitized by floating it on a solution of silver nitrate. The print is made by direct darkening in contact with the negative in a printing frame exposed to natural light. The image has a very fine silver grain, with a brown-orange colour. It is then usually toned, most often in a gold chloride bath, which gives it cooler tones, ranging from reddish-brown to purplish-black depending on the freshness of the toning bath. This process, carried out for aesthetic reasons, also improves the preservation of the print, enhancing its chemical stability. The toned print is then fixed in a sodium thiosulfate bath. Due to the thinness of the paper, to avoid tearing, warping, or curling, the prints are most often mounted on cardboard.

Identification

Albumen paper is characterised by the thinness of its paper base (thinner than that of salted paper). As albumen paper is a two-layer paper, the paper fibres remain visible through the image layer (unlike more modern three-layer papers, such as aristotypes and developable papers).

Deterioriation

Natural ageing gives albumen paper a characteristic yellow hue, which may be more or less pronounced. Albumen paper that has undergone cycles of drying will develop a network of characteristic micro-cracks. Exposure to polluting gases from poor-quality materials or ambient air pollution will cause the silver image to fade. Poor fixing or insufficient washing will cause the image to yellow.

Glossary