19 APRIL 1851, Page 18

MR. BEARD'S ENAMELLED DA,GUERBEGTYPES.

Mr. Beard, with the aid of his artist M. Mansion, has effected a valu- able improvement in daguerreotype portraits, by combining with the photographic process a sort of enamel painting ; thus rendering the image indelible, and producing a deep-toned pictorial effect approaching that of the miniatures of Thorburn.

The facility and almost instantaneousness with which a strong and faith- ful likenesa, if not a pleasing one, is obtained by means of the daguerreo- type, must always cause this process to be resorted to, under any disadvan- tages; and whatever tends to lessen the cold and grim aspect of the pho- tographic image on the metal, is an acceptable improvement The mode of colouring hitherto in use was so far an advance in the art; but the new melling process of Messrs. Beard and Mansion gives results far more bril3iant and satisfactory. Bright scarlet, flesh colour, deep blue, and other pure and intense hues previously unattainable, are now pro- duced with powerful pictorial effect ; and the gold. embroidery of military uniforms, and similar enrichments of costume, have no longer the patchy and tinsel look consequent on the application of gold.; which_ is now, ap-

tly, represented by a yellow pigment The addition of coloured bsckgrounds and, in short, the covering of the whole plate with colour— the photographic image being to the artist as the "dead colouring" or Light and shade of a picture—produces a complete and harmonious en- semble, which only by its extreme minuteness of detail indicates that the ,whole was not the work of the painter himaelf. The tone of colour may be described as differing from that of a minia- ture on ivory, or an enamel painting on copper, just as a mezzotint en-

graving coloured by hand differs from an aquatint or lithographic print coloured by hand : the metallic medium cannot entirely be neutralized.

The process of enamelling daguerreotypes so far resembles that of ena- mel-painting on copper and gold, that heat is employed, and the opaque colours became transparent by the action of fire : in fact, the colours are burnt, into the plate, and thus are not only rendered permanent themselves but constitute a protection to the photographic image. The enamelled daguerreotypes, therefore, require no glass to cover them ; they may be wiped with a handkerchief, and dipped in water, without detriment ; and they can be viewed like any other enamel-painting. Moreover, the ena- melling process. can be applied to ordinary daguerreotypes—even to such as may have become tarnished.