MOUNTING PRINTS.
Prints may he mounted either on cards or in scrap books.
When the photographs are portraits it is usual to have mounts which show only a narrow margin. In the case of smaller sizes the mounted prints are put into the well-known albums ; in the larger ones the mounts themselves are commonly made with gilt sides, so that when placed, for example, on a mantleshelf leaning against the wall, the mounted print has a finished appearance.
Landscapes, and at times large portraits, are mounted on cardboard mounts with wide margins, the length and breadth of the mount being commonly nearly double the length and breadth of the print. Gilt bevel-edged mounts have been recently introduced, and when these are used the photographs are mounted close up to the edges. The effect is very good.
Scrap-books are very suitable for receiving photo graphic prints of all kinds, but especially landscape prints. Indeed, it is a very desirable thing for amateurs to make a rule of fixing a print from every negative taken into such a book. This does not prevent them from mounting in a more ornamental way such prints as they consider their best. Amateurs are to be warned against making the negative the end instead of the means. It may seem strange that it should be so ; but after some time the photographer gets to look with so great satisfaction at the negative that he is perfectly pleased if it is perfect, and is liable to place it on one side without even taking a print from it It is for this reason that we urge that at least one print be taken from every negative and be pasted into the special book which is made for the purpose, and to which the name of " The Amateur's Scrap-Book or Register of Work " has been given.
On whatever the print is to be mounted the process of mounting is the same. Various solutions are used for the purpose. Starch and glue arc the most common, but both these have the drawback that they cockle or bend the mount. This is objectionable in any case, but not so much so when mounts are used as when the prints arc pasted into a scrap-book. In the former case the cockling may be removed by the after process of burnish ing or rolling, which will be described, but in the latter it cannot. "Marion and Co.'s mounting solution for photographs " does not cockle the mount, and is therefore preferable to either of the other mountants mentioned.
The method of using it is as follows :—The prints are first of all flattened, as has been already described. The solution is warmed till it is quite liquid. The prints are taken one by one and solution is applied with a hard brush. Each one is then brought into contact with the mount, a clean cloth being used to press it clown. It is best not to apply the print the moment that the solution has been brushed on, but to let it remain for a two till it becomes somewhat sticky.
If a scrap-book made of thick paper instead of card board be used, photographs may be inserted without any mountant at all. A slit is made for each corner of the print, as we show, and the corners arc inserted. It will be seen that by this method prints can only be fixed on one side of each leaf.