These three photographs, one on the face of the frame with two on the back, each display two women engaging in sexual activity. The photographs are done using silver gelatin and have a glossy finish to them.

Weight (Lbs): 3
Height (In.): 14
Width (In.): 12
Depth (In.): 2.5
Size: 250.5 x 4.0 x 4.0"
Maker: Unknown
Material: Silver Gel,
Date: C. 1920
Provenance:
Condition: No noticed damage or fading to the photographs.
History: The gelatin silver process was introduced by Richard Leach Maddox in 1871 with subsequent considerable improvements in sensitivity obtained by Charles Harper Bennett in 1878. Gelatin silver print paper was made as early as 1874 on a commercial basis, but it was poor quality because the dry-plate emulsion was coated onto the paper only as an afterthought. Coating machines for the production of continuous rolls of sensitized paper were in use by the mid-1880s, though widespread adoption of gelatin silver print materials did not occur until the 1890s. The earliest papers had no baryta layer, and it was not until the 1890s that baryta coating became a commercial operation, first in Germany, in 1894, and then taken up by Kodak by 1900. Although the baryta layer plays an important part in the manufacture of smooth and glossy prints, the baryta paper of the 1890s did not produce the lustrous or glossy print surface that became the standard for fine art photography in the twentieth century. Matting agents, textured papers, and thin baryta layers that were not heavily calendered produced a low-gloss and textured appearance. The higher gloss papers first became popular in the 1920s and 30s as photography transitioned from pictorialism into modernism, photojournalism, and "straight" photography.