Pouncy, John

SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics

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b. 1820 England

d. 1894 Dorchester (?), Dorset, England

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English photographer and pioneer of the gum bichromate permanent printing process.

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A professional photographer working from a studio in Dorchester, Pouncy had a long interest in "permanent" photographs. In 1857 he published two volumes of photolithographed views of Dorset. He was later to devise a number of variations of the photolithographic process.

Pouncy is best remembered for his pigment process, patented in 1858, using vegetable carbon, gum arabic and potassium bichromate. His prints exhibited at the London Photographic Society the same year were greatly admired. However, Pouncy's gum bichromate process was, in fact, covered by earlier patents filed by Poitevin, but this did not deter Pouncy from submitting his prints to the Duke of Lyne's competition for permanent photographs in 1859. For the excellence of his work, Pouncy was awarded the lesser part of the major prize won by Poitevin. Although Pouncy's work was not original, he pioneered the carbon process in England and can be considered the practical founder of the different technique of gum bichromate printing.

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Bibliography

10 April 1858, British patent no. 780 (gum bichromate permanent printing process).

Further Reading

John Werge, 1890, The Evolution of Photography, London (an interesting contemporary account of Pouncy's work).

J.M.Eder, 1945, History of Photography, trans. E. Epstean, New York.

H.Gernshiem and A.Gernsheim, 1969, The History of Photography, rev. edn, London. G.Wakeman, 1973, Victorian Book Illustration, Great Britain (a good popular account of Pouncy's work).

JW