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Photogravure Frontispiece - Babes in the Wood or The Forest Family with August 1917 NG magazine

Hi There! Just receive my ebay item - Babes in the Wood or aka The Forest Family that comes with the August 1917 National Geographic magazine. At first I thought this is just an ordinary photo. Upon inspecting this photo - I realise this is a photogravure photo.

From wikipedia:

Photogravure is an intaglio printmaking or photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is coated with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue which had been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a high quality intaglio print that can reproduce the detail and continuous tones of a photograph.

I was so surprised - a near 100 years photo and it still produce a photogravure effect. 

Views: 50

Comment by George Thomas Wilson on February 2, 2016 at 10:34am

Thank you for the research, Mike.

Many of the issues back in the early 20th century had full page photos that the Society referred to as Photogravures.  I just assumed that it was an obsolete term for photograph.  It's nice to learn that it means something more.

These images are much more brown than the other photos in the magazine.  Again, I assumed it was just the paper stock aging, but now I realize it is from the copper used in the processing.

Tom Wilson

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