Ceramic Enamel Photography

Nelson King Cherrill
Star , Issue 2856, 8 June 1877, Page 2
THE GOVERNOR'S VISIT. (Marquis of Normanby)
Opening of the New Museum Buildings
... Under the supervision of Mr N. K. Cherrill, photography ranked next in order, his display being a particularly interesting one. The Woodbury process of mechanical printing, and the art of ceramic enamel photography, with the accompanying specimens in various shapes being especially commented upon. Mr Cherrill also showed a very fine collection of cameras and the various lenses in use.

Note: Cherrill arrived in New Zealand on 25 July 1876 from England so this probably was a process he practiced in England.

The Star, Issue 3508, 9 July 1879, Page 3
Of ceramic enamel photographs, there are 16 specimens, such as would be suitable for use in brooches, lockets, &c. They represent one of the most interesting processes possible. The sitter is photographed in the ordinary way, but instead of printing on to sensitised paper, the picture is prepared as a film of collodion on glass. This film is then carefully floated off in water, and as carefully floated on to a tablet of white porcelain. These tablets are constructed in a manner similar to the dial plate of a watch, a porcelain surface being deposited on a plate of copper, moulded to the desired degree of convexity. The tablet, with the collodion film floated on to it, is placed for a few moments in a muffle furnace at a high temperature, and in this rapid process the collodion is consumed, and the carbon base of the picture is firmly deposited on the porcelain. When the tablet has cooled a milky looking wash of enamelling is passed over its surface, and it is returned to the furnace, this time to be subjected to a heat sufficiently intense to melt the enamelling, and produce a permanent glaze over the already permanent carbon picture. The process is a very tedious and troublesome one, the slightest inattention resulting in discoloration of the photograph. The great advantage of the ceramic picture is that both the photograph and the substances on which it is printed are absolutely imperishable.

Star , Issue 3824, 19 July 1880, Page 4
... Mr Cherrill also exhibits some of the beautiful carbon photographs on porcelain, and various other kinds, together with some choice examples of the after work on photographs in chalk, water colour, or oil. Photographic portraits, some of them exquisitively finished, are shown by Mr Schourup, and examples of portraits in oil on photographic backgrounds are contributed by Mr Cambridge and Mr T. Satchell...

The other Christchurch photographer doing enamel photography was Niels Peter Schourup .

This advert was from The Star newspaper Issue 3863, 3 September 1880, Page 2

COLOMBO STREET
PHOTOGRAPHIC ESTABLISHMENT.
P. Schourup
Invites Public attention to his new carbon

Photographs on china and opal.

These pictures are absolutely permanent.

Specimens on view at the Studio, Colombo

street, opposite E. Reece.

Mr. P. Schourup, photographer, of Colombo street, took an excellent likeness of His Excellency the Governor, during the recent visit of the latter here. Happening to pass by Mr. Schourup's establishment the other day, I closely examined the specimens in his window of his new style of photography (the name of which has slipped my memory), and I am by no means sure that I admire it, excellent as the productions are, so far as the photography goes. Young ladies smiling on you from the centre of elaborate china plates may be all very well, indeed one can imagine that the vision of a lovely face slowly emerging from the depths of one's soup might not be altogether unpleasant, and might furnish food for the mind while the body was receiving its nourishment; but the sight of the Hon. Mr. Rolleston, looking preternaturally solemn (and hideous) on a good-sized vase, is quite another thing, oh!

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 32, 7 December 1883, Page 19

Schourup continued with this form of photography until at least 1886 -

The Star, Issue 5996, 13 August 1886, Page 3
There was a good attendance last night at the Industrial Arts Conversazione. An excellent concert was given for the entertainment of the visitors ... Additions continue to be made to the exhibits, among the most noticeable being some fine carbon photographs on porcelain, the work of Mr P. Schourup, and a number of very good photographs taken by Messrs Donovan and Meers...

some other references

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVII, Issue 23, 28 January 1882, Page 2

Some excellent photographs in porcelain which have come out very clearly are now on view at the American Ferro Photo gallery where they are attracting a good deal of attention.