Coinery

They're great, never even heard of these before! Sprout sticks! Brilliant...knew what you meant instantly!

I'm guessing the sprues are ordinarily trimmed/filed and recycled? Must have been incredibly time consuming, and at a time when conventional dies were available? As Dave was saying...why?

Is potin that much harder than silver then?

Cheers, J, any pictures handy? I think I must have one of these at some point soon!

Really interesting! So glad I asked! Many thanks, Chaps!

Superb quality reverse, though of course we could nit-pick about the central strike, as I'm sure you already have, though it really is nit picking when so many other factors are spot on! Nice one, I say!

Would these be struck, or just molten material dripped into water or onto a flat stone? Is there a consistent or recognisable design for this type of coin? I have no idea about then. Great to have the beginning of it all in your hand I'll bet?

Fabulous coin, love it!

Impressive property!

Although I did read that 'most' people of the period could afford a set of 12 Cartes de Visite? There must have been a big market, Lafosse had 14,000 racks for negatives.

Brilliant link, history's amazing, great to actually see the building, absolutely love it! I don't think it too much of a presumption then to date the photo pre-1891, when Lafosse moved to Devon, aged 52? I believe the late 1870s/1880s will be a reasonable place to stick the pin?

It's amazing what you can find out on the 'net! "the negative room has racks for 14,000 negatives" So what do we think of her age? Does around 15 seem a fair shout? M. LAFOSSE AT KNOLL'S HOUSE, MANCHESTER. Delightfully situated in its own grounds at Higher Broughton, above the vapours of murky Manchester, is a quaintly built villa of black oak, a bit of mediaeval architecture that seems to have been forgotten by the modern builders, who have been so busy planting their bricks and stucco around. It is Knoll's House, and, posed on its terrace-like pedestal, it appears all the brighter and more pleasing by reason of its contrast to the solemn square edifices in the neighbourhood. The gable roof and shining black beams are charmingly picturesque, and as the building lies back at some distance from the road, there are quietude and repose to still further enhance its beauty. The interior is no less pleasing. An oak passage, somewhat low and sombre, with shining casques of steel and polished breast- plates on either side, leads to a panelled room in which there is much exquisite carving. Here everything is in good taste and keeping with the structure. The furniture is all of black oak, and on the massive sideboard are tankards and platters of burnished silver. The fireplace is of mediaeval design, and the settees and curtains have an air of the tapestry age about them. To be brief, in the construction of Knoll's House, every bit of Old Manchester that could be collected together by its builder was made use of, and the experiment, a risky one, has yielded a very happy result. It is only the oak room and hall, however, that possess an old-fashioned air. The rest of the rooms have lofty ceilings and modern furniture, although in the handsome gallery or reception room there are also much antique work and rare carving to admire. M. Lafosse has a business establishment in the town of Manchester itself, and it is only the higher class camera work that is executed at Knoll's House. M. Lafosse' s name stands so high as an artist that we need not speak here of the merits of his pictures ; he executes large numbers of cabinets, for which he possesses a wide reputation, while in respect to club portraits on opal — to take another branch of work — they are produced upon so large a scale that M. Lafosse actually employs a staff of framers on the premises. A courtyard separates the house from the working depart- ments, the studios being again connected by a passage with the front entrance. "We cross the yard, and M. Lafosse points out where his large groups are taken. There are a rustic bench and two or three chairs upon a platform, the boarded background being painted of a greyish tone, and trained with imitation ivy. "After two o'clock I can do anything I please there; I know my effects as well as in the studio indoors." "We pass on into the framing room. "Here are the cheap club portraits we were talking about just now ; our charge, finished in colours, is thirty- five shillings, or two guineas in black and white." The pic- tures are all upon opal, the latter being simply albumenised, coated with collodion, and sensitized in the ordinary way. In reply to a question as to toning, M. Lafosse says : " The tint is so satisfactory after development that we never tone." "We enter the printing room. It is a model of construction and ingenuity. It is an oblong apartment, and, as a matter of course, not very light. Along the length of the room runs a dresser or bench, upon which the pressure-frames are stood for changing. In front of the printers are large roof -like windows, and the frames, put upon a sliding tray, may be either pushed forward under these windows, or farther still into the open air for print- ing. There are six of these sliding trays, measuring some five feet broad, all of which in turn are drawn in upon the dresser, to change the frames ; and according as the tray is pushed out again into the light much or little, so the printing proceeds quickly or slowly. Conveniently situated behind the printers is the darker sensitizing room, whence fresh supplies of paper are drawn, and also the negative store room, so that the employes have all necessary to do their work conveniently to hand, and the operations proceed smoothly and uninterruptedly. The nega- tive room has racks for 14,000 negatives, each pigeon-hole con- taining ten plates ; hence the numbering is at once plain and straightforward. M. Lafosse is never troubled with rising of the film ; he employs both Hubbard's and the Autotype varnish. There are two fine glass rooms at Knoll's House, at right angles to one another. Our kindly host insists upon taking a portrait, so we sit down. When the picture is taken, however, we scarcely know, for there is such a humorous rattle the whole time, and all sorts of conjuring going on with a fan, and anec- dotes about past sitters and present ones, that by the time we begin to compose ourselves, he says it is all over. M. Lafosse is of opinion that French photographers are certainly not ahead of those in England now-a-days. " But Paris photographers have many advantages — that is a nice little fan, isn't it ? — you see their models pose so much better than you English people do — that's a capital smile ! — and then they dress so much better. Here you have people who don't know how to dress at all ; they come arrayed in glaring satin or a nasty shiny grey, like that you are wearing — capital laugh that ; just keep it on — thank you." M. Lafosse's principal studio, which is about fifty feet long, is tinted a dark grey-green. There is a skirting-board at the light side eighteen inches from the ground ; then three feet of ground-glass, and above that, sloping inwards, three feet of clear glass. All or any portion of the ground-glass may be shut out by opaque sliding screens, and there is a very ingenious arrangement for modifying the top side light that comes through the clear glass. A row of small white screens hang down from the roof, and in this position do not obscure the glass. But if sloped to the right or left — and by means of a frame-work they all move together — the light is reflected on to or away from the sitter, or, by pulling taut the glass, obscured altogether. The screens, indeed, are constructed something after the manner of a Venetian blind. The studio contains a vast number of clever properties, but the best of all is a large musical box, which M. Lafosse finds exceedingly useful when making exposures, as sitters then have something else besides themselves to think about at the eventful moment. In working, M. Lafosse believes it well to make up collodion and silver bath in batches. For instance, he makes up one hundred ounces of nitrate of silver into bath, and mixes up at the same time as much collodion as he is likely to require for the same. When these are expended, he prepares fresh supplies . In the same way he albumenises a hundred or a thousand plates at a time, for M. Lafosse invariably employs an albumen sub- stratum both for ordinary work and for his opal enlargements. The varnishing is done in an ingenious manner, which our readers will do well to note. Our host makes use of a little "cheerful stove." M. Lafosse's retouching room is also worth making a note of. The light enters from a wide window in front, but a curtain depending from the ceiling shuts out direct illumination, except where the row of retouching frames are placed. The ceiling and wall behind are painted a dark neutral tint to absorb the light and not to reflect it, so that while the apartment is softly illu- minated, the light behind the negatives is still exceedingly vivid. Altogether this retouching room is a model. M. Lafosse is of opinion that something novel is necessary to give healthy impetus to photographic work, and he has not much faith in the promenade or any other style of portrait effecting such beneficial change. " We do not want merely a variation in the cutting or mounting of photographs, but some modification of the photograph itself. A real cameo, or bas-relief portrait, in which the face stands out from a dark background, would make an attractive picture, for example, if we could only produce such things. " Possibly, now the Woodbury patent has lapsed, we shall have some attention given to the production of photographic portraits in relief ; at any rate, M. Lafosse's idea is well worthy of record here.

Many thanks, David, I'm hoping for a date of around then, because it would then be viable that this lady was the mother of two children around the date 1893-96

A nice little snippet someone shared with me - married women of the period would not wear their hair down in public!

Nothing recordable with my Luddite set-up! Good old fashioned push the aerial in the back of the tele stuff for me, with an occasional tweak of the mast outside!

Brilliant stories! I so very much mean to metal detect one day! Detectorists are back on bbc4 for a new series tomorrow at 10pm ? Everyone I've spoken to thinks that's crap timing, but I finish work around 9pm tomorrow, with a 30 minute drive home...perfect timing I say! ?

Sadly they are all very much cleaned, Craigy! Edit: but if you love them, who cares!

Hell, you've gotta get some books Gaz...you need to know this stuff, given the amount of material you have! ?

Brilliant, Peter! What an epitaph "He sold his house to buy a coin he had to have!" Proper! ?

Hey, Gaz, c'mon, let's have your posts in the Hammered section, let's keep that area alive. It's good for Chris and good for the Hammered community as a whole! ?

To inspire 10 people PA is a wonderful philosophy, and says a great deal about the man. I never had any contact with him, but can clearly see that he'll be missed. My sincere condolences to any and all that his passing affects. Go gently into the good night, Sir!

What are the thoughts?

John is one of our visitors who pops in every now and again when he's got something to plug or sell! I think it was a verdigris removal product last time? ?