Cros and the trichrome process

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

In March 2002 in Paris, Sotheby's astonished all historians of photography by selling in Paris the oldest known photographic picture, made by Niepce, reproducing a drawing. There was no doubt on Its authenticity because it was included in a letter that the inventor had sent to one of his cousins, where he described the experience. The collector André Jammes had endeavoured to contact the descendants of Niepce and his family, and so discovered it. It was sold 490 K € fees included.

The fourth and last part of the Jammes collection will be sold in Paris by Sotheby's on November 15. Lot 164 is also very interesting because it concerns one of the earliest successful tests of color photography.

The color has always interested the photographic enthusiasts, and from the very beginning many prints were enhanced with watercolors. Working independently, two French inventors, Charles Cros and Louis Ducos du Hauron, had undertaken research to get a real process for photographing in colors. In 1868 and 1869, both published a scientific memory, then they met. Their ideas, very similar, were based on the presence of three matrices of bichromate gelatin tinted in the three basic colors, and exposed successively through three filters of the same colors.

This complicated technique remained in the laboratory, but subsequent developments based on this principle resulted forty years later in the first industrial process for instant photography in color, the Autochrome Lumière.

This lot of the Jammes collection is the photograph of a still life made by Charles Cros in 1869, 30 x 24 cm, from which another print is also known. It is one of the first witnesses of the achievement of the work of Cros. The press release of September 5 announced it at 150 K €, but the catalog is more reasonable: 120 K €.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The trichrome of Cros has not been sold. I went to see after the sale the condition report: this photograph was not in very good condition. A discussion with an expert confirmed that Cros was best known as a theoretician. It is possible that an exceptional trichrome by Ducos du Hauron should be easier to sell in that targeted price range.