First Class Smoke Room Furniture

[Damon Hill]

Thankyou for that Ken. Next time I see my friend I will ask him about his Pantone swatch and have a look at those colours. Incidentally Ken, whilst we are on the subject of colours in the Smoking Room, what is the likely colour of the table tops in that room? If only they had colour photos back then..... (Mind you, have the 'fun' of the Titanic...if one could use that word in relation to Titanic, is not knowing all the answers!)

 

[Ken Marschall]

I believe the tables were covered with the typical green felt for card playing, but I haven't made a study of it.

"If only they had colour photos back then..."

Oh, they did. Through a tricky and time-consuming method. A tripod-mounted camera was locked down securely, and three exposures were made on B&W film (glass plates), each with a different-colored filter in front of the lens -- deep red, deep blue and deep yellow. The resulting three images could then be transferred to three printing plates, and each of these plates printed over each other using their respective colored inks.

This was done fairly often back then for color magazine covers, art prints, advertisements, still lives and such, so long as there was no movement during the laborious three-step process.

An spectacular series of full-color photos, done in this manner, was taken inside one of the c.1900 German liners, and post cards were printed (see Jack Shaum's book "Majesty At Sea"). This was years before Olympic and Titanic.

You never know... One day a similar series of B&W glass plates may turn up for Olympic or Titanic. New things continue to be discovered for these ships. It won't end in our lifetimes.

Ken

 

[Brian R Peterson]

Ah yes, the Autochrome Lumií¨re plates - the technology was available as early as 1907 and if an Autochrome is well made, color values can be very good, as seen in this 1917 Autochrome I have in my collection:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Hangman_Heydrich/800px-Nieuport.jpg

Unfortunately, the dyed starch grains are often somewhat coarse, giving a hazy effect with stray colors often appearing, especially in open light areas like skies.

Nonetheless, this "dream-like", impressionist quality was a major reason behind the enduring popularity of the medium over a thirty-year period.

Although difficult to manufacture and relatively expensive, autochomes were relatively easy to use and were immensely popular amongst enthusiastic amateur photographers.

However, they failed to sustain the initial interest of more serious "artistic" practitioners, largely due to their inflexibility.

Not only did the need for diascopes and projectors make them extremely difficult to publicly exhibit.

Nevertheless, it is entirely possible that one or more photographers took Autochromes of the Olympic and possibly even the Titanic, that as Ken states have yet to be found - and if such a find is made, it would the Holy Grail of Titanica....

Coincidentally, here are the Autochromes of the interiors of the German liners, also from my collection:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Hangman_Heydrich/decadent5.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Hangman_Heydrich/decadent4.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Hangman_Heydrich/decadent3.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Hangman_Heydrich/decadent1.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Hangman_Heydrich/decadant2.jpg

Best Regards,

Brian

 

[Alexander John Cooley]

I would have to say that the olympic class liners were elegant. The German liners were Elaborate, And the Cunard ships were very Technicolorful.