"Dassonville Charcoal Black"

sample book with 10 charcoal black prints in 9 album leaves with printed descriptions, bound in black full canvas boards

stamped title Dassonville Charcoal Black on front cover

William Dassonville, also a chemist and one-time neighbor of Ansel Adams, produced his own photographic papers and emulsions for artistic effects in his prints and later expanded his business to include the manufacture of photographic papers, such as his famous "Charcoal Black." His photographic paper, used by Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham, among others, brought Dassonville short-term commercial success, but it plummeted as rejection of pictorialist photography grew in the 1930s.
The print is part of a sample book as an example of the various papers and effects Dassonville achieved with his beautiful Charcoal Black papers.
(Bassange, 2023)