Comments on: Alternatives to Glass for Covering Daguerreotypes?

By: John Hurlock

John Hurlock — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:43:46 +0000

Any substance that you put on the surface of the Daguerreotype will have a different refractive index from air and will change the way the image particles reflect and refract the light. I have coated Dags with the gum Sandrac varnish used on ambrotypes, and although it reduces the brilliance of the image considerably it does protect it from abrasion. Because this varnish shifts the wavelength of the reflected light away from the blue region of the spectrum, the varnish will also transform a fugitive or solarized blue image into a warm brown one. John Hurlock

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:47:39 +0000

I know that ambrotypes and tintypes are often varnished but the collodion surface is much different than the surface of the daguerreotype. It seems like most spray sealants wouldn’t let the light reflect correctly as Andy said. Though an acrylic block would be an interesting experiment provided you could get it to poor gently enough not to disturb the image.

By: Andy Stockton

Andy Stockton — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:08:21 +0000

I have no experience to share (yet) but I am also wondering if anyone has tried casting a daguerreotype into an acrylic block? The reading I did in The Daguerreotype by Barger and White was not very hopeful about coatings in general – apparently because the coatings they tried intefered with the light scattering properties of the image surface itself. But it still seemed like it might be an interesting experiment to cast one into a block.