Please take a few moments to read about what we do to our prints. Before the advent of modern offset printing color illustrations were first hand colored then later in the early 19th Century the process of CHROMOLITHOGRAPHY came into and was the dominant means of color printing for nearly a hundred years.
Many of our plates, especially those done by Richard Knötel of UNIFORMENKUNDE fame and those published by Alfred de Marbot were done by individual hand coloring while many were done with the chromolithography process. The hand colored plates were printed as black and white stone or steel engravings on relatively heavy card then hand colored using transparent or sometimes opaque watercolors or a mixture of the two. The variations here are based on the work of the individual artist doing the coloring according to the instructions of the artist or publisher. Nearly every print is different.
When the color chromolithography process began to be adopted the problem of variation was in theory eliminated. Unfortunately this is most often not the case. The study of uniformology and publishing of military uniform studies, was, even in the 19th and early 20th Centuries not a profitable endeavor and the chromolithographers and the papers they used were seldom the best. The plates holding the various colors were often not in register and colors often overlap to a great degree detracting from the quality of the final work.
At Uniformology we spend literally thousands of hours per year correcting the variations in these plates and making them with computer correcting up to modern standards and better reflecting the artists original intentions. We are also able to add many details to prints that the printing processes of earlier years could not reproduce.
We do this out of a passion for the preservation of the colors and panache of the past. We hope you appreciate our work as much as we enjoy doing it.
The section of a plate from Knötel’s UNIFORMENKUNDE which comes from our Uniformology Book 28 is a typical example. This plate originates from a photograph of a first edition original Richard Knötel plate. As you can see by comparing the two examples, we have completely restored the vibrance of the colors and added many details to enhance the plate. This is an example of the fine quality you can always expect from Uniformology.
Many of our plates, especially those done by Richard Knötel of UNIFORMENKUNDE fame and those published by Alfred de Marbot were done by individual hand coloring while many were done with the chromolithography process. The hand colored plates were printed as black and white stone or steel engravings on relatively heavy card then hand colored using transparent or sometimes opaque watercolors or a mixture of the two. The variations here are based on the work of the individual artist doing the coloring according to the instructions of the artist or publisher. Nearly every print is different.
When the color chromolithography process began to be adopted the problem of variation was in theory eliminated. Unfortunately this is most often not the case. The study of uniformology and publishing of military uniform studies, was, even in the 19th and early 20th Centuries not a profitable endeavor and the chromolithographers and the papers they used were seldom the best. The plates holding the various colors were often not in register and colors often overlap to a great degree detracting from the quality of the final work.
At Uniformology we spend literally thousands of hours per year correcting the variations in these plates and making them with computer correcting up to modern standards and better reflecting the artists original intentions. We are also able to add many details to prints that the printing processes of earlier years could not reproduce.
We do this out of a passion for the preservation of the colors and panache of the past. We hope you appreciate our work as much as we enjoy doing it.
The section of a plate from Knötel’s UNIFORMENKUNDE which comes from our Uniformology Book 28 is a typical example. This plate originates from a photograph of a first edition original Richard Knötel plate. As you can see by comparing the two examples, we have completely restored the vibrance of the colors and added many details to enhance the plate. This is an example of the fine quality you can always expect from Uniformology.
Uniformology Restorations
slide your mouse over the print to see before and after effects