ca.1895 French photochrom BRIDGE OF ISABELLA II, BILBAO, BASQUE COUNTRY, SPAIN

Description: Boulanger_177 ca.1895 French photochrom BRIDGE OF ISABELLA II, BILBAO, BASQUE COUNTRY, SPAIN, #177 Photochrom titled Bilbao. Le Pont d'Isabelle II, page size 32 x 24 cm, image size 21 x 14.5 cm. From: Autour du Monde - Aquarelles - Souvenirs de Voyages, Paris, L. Boulanger, editeur. Bilbao port city, capital of Vizcaya provincia (province), in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of the Basque Country, northern Spain. Bilbao lies along the mouth of the Nervión River, 7 miles (11 km) inland from the Bay of Biscay. It is the largest city in the Basque Country. Bilbao originated as a settlement of seafaring people on the banks of the Nervión's estuary. The inhabitants began to export both the iron ore found in large quantities along the river's eastern bank and the products of their ironworks, which became well known in Europe. To this settlement of mariners and ironworkers, Don Diego López de Haro, lord of Biscay, in 1300 gave the charter and privilege of self-government in an independent municipality. Bilbao's port was also a centre for the export of wool from Burgos, in the interior of Castile, to Flanders. In 1511 the city obtained the right, like that of Burgos, to its own commercial tribunal that could issue laws in the form of ordinances. The last of these, promulgated in 1737, formed the basis of the first Spanish commercial code in 1829. In the 18th century Bilbao derived great prosperity from intensive trade with the American colonies of Spain. The city was sacked by French troops in the Peninsular War (1808–14) and was besieged four times during the Carlist wars. These struggles produced a strong communal spirit that after 1874 directed itself toward industrialization. Bilbao is divided into two distinctive areas: the left (eastern) bank of the Nervión River, which includes factories and working-class neighbourhoods, and the right (western) bank, including commercial, historic, and residential areas. The old part of Bilbao lies on the right bank, its nucleus formed by the Siete Calles (“Seven Streets”), a series of parallel streets leading to the riverbank. The old city's notable landmarks include the Gothic-style Cathedral of Santiago (14th century), the Plaza Nueva (early 19th century), and the Renaissance-style churches of San Antonio, Santos Juanes, and San Nicholas. Several towns on the left bank of the river were annexed to the municipality after 1890, forming the modern extension of the city. This section is a banking and commercial centre and is the site of the provincial government's offices. Nine bridges cross the Nervión to link the old and new parts of the city. Bilbao is the one of the most important ports in Spain. Beginning in the 1870s, Bilbao experienced rapid industrialization based on the export of iron ore and the development of the iron and steel and shipbuilding industries. The growth of industry drew workers from other parts of Spain, and their presence soon provoked a reaction in the form of Basque nationalism. Tourism and services have grown in importance since the decline of the steel and shipbuilding industries in the 1960s and '70s. The opening in 1997 of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, designed by American architect Frank Gehry in curving, titanium-clad shapes, attracted large numbers of tourists. Also in the 1990s, city redevelopment projects included a subway system, upgrading of the airport and harbour, construction of a conference centre and concert hall (1999; home of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra), cleanup of the river, and a waterfront development near the Guggenheim that replaced former shipyards with a cultural and business centre. By the early 21st century, income from tourism had alleviated the effects of the decline in heavy industry, and Bilbao's metropolitan area, which contained nearly half the total population of the autonomous community, continued to expand. Bilbao produces industrial and railway equipment, aeronautical equipment, automobiles, chemicals, hand and machine tools, tires, and paper. Fishing still contributes to the economy. There are museums devoted to fine arts, religious art, bullfighting, and Basque culture and history. Institutions of higher education include the University of Deusto (1886) and the University of the Basque Country (1968). Pop. (2008 est.) 353,340. Photochrom Photochrom (also called the Aäc process) prints are colorized images produced from black-and-white photographic negatives via the direct photographic transfer of a negative onto lithographic printing plates. The process is properly considered a photographic variant of chromolithography, a broader term referring to color lithography in general. History The process was invented in the 1880s by Hans Jakob Schmid (1856–1924), an employee of the Swiss company Orell Gessner Füssli, a printing firm with a history extending back into the 16th century. Füssli founded the stock company Photochrom Zürich (later Photoglob Zürich AG) as the business vehicle for the commercial exploitation of the process and both Füssli and Photoglob continue to exist today. From the mid 1890s on the process was licensed by other companies including the Detroit Photographic Company in the US and the Photochrom Company of London. The photochrom process was most popular in the 1890s, when true color photography was first being developed but was still commercially impractical. In 1898 the US Congress passed the Private Mailing Card Act which allowed private publishers to produce postcards. These could be mailed for one cent each — the letter rate at the time was two cents. Thousands of photochrom prints, usually of cities or landscapes, were created and sold as postcards and it is in this format that photochrom reproductions became most popular. The Detroit Photographic Company reportedly produced as many as seven million photochrom prints in some years, and ten to thirty thousand different views were offered. After World War One, which brought an end to the craze for collecting Photochrom postcards, the chief use of the process was printing posters and art reproductions, and the last Photochrom printer operated up to 1970. Process A tablet of lithographic limestone, known as a "litho stone," is coated with a light-sensitive coating, comprising a thin layer of purified bitumen dissolved in benzene. A reversed half-tone negative is then pressed against the coating and exposed to daylight for a period of 10 to 30 minutes in summer, up to several hours in winter. The image on the negative allows varying amounts of light to fall on different areas of the coating, causing the bitumen to harden and become resistant to normal solvents in proportion to the amount of light that falls on it. The coating is then washed in turpentine solutions to remove the unhardened bitumen and retouched in the tonal scale of the chosen color to strengthen or soften the tones as required. Each tint is applied using a separate stone bearing the appropriate retouched image. The finished print is produced using at least six, but more commonly from 10 to 15, tint stones.

Price: 24 USD

Location: Zagreb, HR

End Time: 2025-02-10T06:30:24.000Z

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