gum prints: ghost signs
I have been searching out the old adverts and logos painted on walls all over Bath, and photographing the sites using home-made pinhole cameras. So far I have located over 100 ghost signs, as they are known, left over from a time when large areas of Bath’s buildings were covered in text, as can be seen in old photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They are evidence of the commercial history of ordinary people in Bath, a past which is often overlooked in favour of the story of Bath's Georgian and Roman heritage.
Gum prints are contact-printed with a mix of watercolour paints, gum arabic and a UV light-sensitive chemical. It is an historical process invented by Mungo Ponton in 1839.
Gum prints are contact-printed with a mix of watercolour paints, gum arabic and a UV light-sensitive chemical. It is an historical process invented by Mungo Ponton in 1839.