For your evening’s delectation, here is a nicely hand-colored CDV of an anonymous lady from Havana, Cuba. This is only the second CDV I have with an association with Cuba – I have a C.D. Fredericks that lists the Havana studio on the back mark, but is not necessarily taken there. In this case, Mr. B. Palmer, Artist, Havana is the only designation, so I must assume the photo was indeed taken in Havana. No street address is mentioned, which would be neat to have to be able to cross-check at some point in the future to see if his studio still stood. The entire backmark is in English, so I wonder if he catered to the tourist trade exclusively. The lady in the photo appears to be an adult, so I’ve called her Dama and not Señorita.
Dama De Havana, B. Palmer, Photographer
Wow, how striking! I wonder what color(s) that dress was. Interesting, too, that only the tablecloth seems to be tinted, unless I’m missing something.
I THINK her jacket is lightly colored (although that could just be fortuitous aging) and ever-so-slight tinting of the cheeks, but it’s faded.
I’ve looked, though admittedly not very hard, for some information on whether certain colors typically fade faster than others in these old photos. I have a couple of photos like this one where the color enhancement seems so random, and I suspect something else must have been colored, too. Sometimes you can hold it at an angle and see where color has faded, but without being able to determine the original color. I’m sure there are a lot of variables in terms of the materials used, and the answer wouldn’t be simple.
Certain colors always fade faster than others- yellows always go first, then blues I think then greens, and reds are the last to go, if I recall correctly. Do a google search on pigments and fading. Also look up Wilhelm and Color. He’s a researcher who has done a lot of work on archival permanence of photographic materials.
I figured there were probably different rates of fading, and possibly different rates depending on what type of pigment is used. I have a tinted wedding photo, and the only color left, aside from some red in the cheeks, is the green in the plants. I posted one a while ago with a blue tie, and there’s your one above with the red table. Knowing what is likely to fade fastest might help determine what colors were previously there by process of elimination. Thanks for the tips!