| Edward S. Curtis | Living Artists | Historical Art | Old Pawn Jewelry | Contact Us | |||||
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Return to Goldtone Portfolio {Please Scroll Down to View Curt-Tone Images and Description of Process} Edward S. Curtis perfected the medium regarded as Goldtone or Orotone to the extent he eventually named these images after himself calling them "Curt-Tones". Most photographic prints are a positive image on paper. The Curt-Tone process Curtis used was created by taking a clear plate of optical glass and spread a liquid emulsion onto the surface of the plate. Curtis then projected his negative onto the glass to create a positive image. The highlights and shadows could not be seen unless there was some type of backing on the image. He mixed a combination of banana oils and bronzing powers to create a sepia or a goldtone effect, and then spread this mixture onto the dried emulsion. "The banana oil stunk to high heaven. On the days that I did the flowing, the German piano teacher in the basement got his students to pound on our floor because it smelled so awful." ~ Margaret Gaia, one of Curtis' studio assistants, 1984 |
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The final process involved backing the glass image to so that all the chemicals bonded together. The brilliance of the gold reflecting through the glass gave the Curt-Tone a truly three-dimensional quality with an aura unmatched by any other photographic process. When Edward S. Curtis was asked to describe the Curt-Tone process he said: Advertising brochure for the Curtis Studio, 1903 "The ordinary photographic print, however
good, lacks depth and transparency, or more strictly speaking, translucency.
We all know how beautiful are the stones and pebbles in the limpid brook
of the forest where water absorbs the blue of the sky and the green of
the foliage, yet when we take the same iridescent pebbles from the water
and dry then they are dull and lifeless, so it is with orthodox photographic
print, but in the Cur-tones all the translucency is retained and they
are as full of life and sparkle as an opal." |
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