The Project

The "Unicum" Fund, although considered in general good conditions, contains 830 items showing damages to the mountings whilst 55 items present critical issues of conservation and require restoration to be carried out by Opificio delle Pietre Dure. Furthermore most items require cleaning and storage in security, including cases or frames.

Following the necessary conservation and restoration activities, the project proceeds to the correct cataloguing in Italian and in English and back and front high resolution digitization of each item so that they will be visible and accessible on the FAF website.

These are extremely precious works dating back to the origins of photography which, like the daguerreotype patented by Daguerre in 1839, provide non reproducible positive/negative images that do not allow for copies: they are unique objects produced by Italian, European and American authors, most of them from 1840 to 1860, including a very rare daguerrotype showing Florence covered with snow, which is the earliest image of the city existing in the world, made by the scientist and Head of the Specola Astronomic Observatory, Giovanni Battista Amici (1786-1863) or by his son Vincenzo. Beside several portraits, including those of well-known personalities (such us Gioberti, La Marmora, Liszt), there are views of cities and landscapes (Rome, Genoa, Milan, Palermo, Pisa, Villa d'Este at Tivoli, Niagara Waterfalls, Paris), post-mortem portraits, still-life photos, genre scenes, art works and monuments.

Authors of Unique Items

Ambrotype with woman's portrait, damaged and missing the front part of the case.

Ambrotype with portrait of men's group, with Union-Case.

Album of portraits with ferrotypes.

Among the authors, we would like to mention: Alphonse Bernoud, Gioachino Boglioni, Matthew B. Brady, Aristide Castelli, Onorato Dellacqua, Girault Joseph Philibert De Prangey, Philippe Derussy, Alhonse Thaust Dodero, Alessandro Duroni, Jean Bernard Léon Foucault, Garcin et Meylan, cavalier Iller, Carlo Jest, Lodovico Jung, Giuseppe Marzocchini, John Jabez Edwin Mayall, Désiré François Millet, Joseph Renaud, Pierre-Ambroise Richebourg.

The "Unicum" fund besides various types of techniques (ambrotype, daguerreotype, tintype, Crystoleum, Eburneum, Ivoritype, Pannotype, Metallotype, Physionotrace portraits and Autotype carbon transparency) contains objects of different formats and mountings, from the so-called Union-Case to the French one, 20th century frames , small albums and pendants.

Techniques of conservation and restoration

Conservation interventions will include dry-dusting with micro-aspiration and micro-fiber cloth, deep cleaning with scalpel, cleaning of glasses with a mix of demineralized water and ethyl alcohol, removal of tapes and disfiguring labels with diethyl carbonate (green solvent), secure storage in mountings with localized interventions, manufacturing of conservation cases whenever necessary.

The restoration of 55 objects requires dry or solvent ad-hoc cleaning, water or alcohol consolidation depending on techniques; replacement of damaged glasses with new museum glasses; ad hoc and differentiated conservative mounting.

Depending on their format and type of mounting, all the objects treated will be then placed into folders or paper envelopes (ISO18916) and then moved back into conservation boxes.

Digitization

The digitization of objects is carried out by specialized operators with the creation of a digital workstation and a photographic set where each object is shot - back and front - by Fuji GFX 50R 50 megapixel professional camera, with 8256x6192max resolution.

Cataloguing

The cataloguing will require research and study to identify authors, date and geographic area of production, and will include all information in English and in Italian in compliance with cataloging standards standards, and the creation of FF-Fondi fotografici (Photography funds), an ICCD file for the "Unicum" fund. All digitized images and files will be available on FAF website for consultation, as well as for teaching activities on the history of photo-procedures and on the most important authors and their narratives.

International Workshop

The project of valorization of the "Unicum" fund of the Alinari collection will also include an Online International Workshop, to be held on December 13-14 th 2021 to discuss the issues and typologies of interventions on photographic material with the greatest experts of European and Italian photography collections.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3