Figure 1.--This Scottish studio was established in 1853. We are not sure, hiwever, what foemat was offered in 1853, there were several different popular formats in the 1850s. We know that by the the 1860s they were doing ablbumen CDVs. Click on the image to the front of the card, a boy wearing a tunic over a skirted garment.

We have a lot of questions about Scottish photographic studios, actually European photogrraphic studios in general. Studios established in the 1840s were Daguerreotype studios. Those established in in the 1850s are more of a question. This is because there were many different formats offered in the 1850s, including Ambros, albumen (CDVs), Dags, tin-types, and others. We think that studios for the most part specialized in one format, but that needs to be confirmed. And as the CDV suddenly became the rage about 1859-60, we suspect that studios working with other formats either shifted to the CDV or went out of business. We are not sure how easy it was to convert and how successfully Dag and Ambro photographers made that conversion. We note one studio established in 1853 (figure 1). But we do not know what format they offered at first. The CDV was patentented in France (1854). So we are left wondering if they begn doing CDVs before they were using the albumn process before the CDV was patented. We do know that they were doing CDVs in the 1860s. The situation was a little different in America. Despite having a much larger photographic industry than Europe, we do not see CDV studios until about 1859-60. By the mid-60s virtually all Scottish studios were albumen (CDV) studios. We have much more information about CDV studios than other formats, because studio information wa often printe on the front and back of the CDV. In the late-60s the cabint card appeared. The CDV continued to be the standard format in the 1870s. As the cabinet card also used the albumen process, no major conversion was required. But unlike America, it took some time for cabinet cards to become established.

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Created: 1:19 PM 8/3/2017
Last updated: 1:19 PM 8/3/2017