AGFA Celloidin Papers. Anyone Knows?

[Iridium]

I recently discovered and purchased in a local flea market an "ancient" sealed small pack of Agfa papers, named Agfa Celloidin CS3. It contains 10 9x12cm sheets and also "Autovireur blanc mat" is written on.

I had never seen them before while I couldn't manage to find any reference on the net.

Thus, could anyone contribute any information about them?
Do you think that it's worthwhile to open it or even try to print 'em? or it's better to leave the pack sealed as it is almost certain that the papers are useless after a long time unused?

 

[dpurdy]

It seems the Celloidin is a substance used to put the silver on the paper as opposed to gelatin. And it also seems to be a printing out paper from 1934. That is what I surmise from what I found on Google. There is not much chance of it being at all useable.
dennis

 

[kevs]

Hi Iridium,

Thanks for posting - it looks like it's a collodion self-toning (auto = self, vireur = toning (ed. guess - 'toner' is 'virage' if my memory serves well.)) printing out paper (POP) with a white (blanc) base and a matt finish. An example of a print is here, translated by Google.

POPs have very slow chloride emulsions, designed for contact printing in daylight and is far too insensitive to use under the enlarger. It might still be viable, but unless you're into contact printing in daylight, you might prefer to keep it for your personal museum. You can read more about POP here at Silverprint's website. It's a very nice find - well done!

Cheers,
kevs.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Yes, "virage" in French means "toning".

 

[Peter Schrager]

you should try the paper anyway...expose in the sun in a contact frame
then wash away remaining silver salts
tone in gold for 2-4 minutes ; then fix for 5
I just learned how to make the collodion paper and it's a blast!!
Best, Peter

 

[rtuttle]

I wouldn't even make an attempt at using it. In fact I would get one of those plastic cases and put it on the old bookshelf. I cooler conversation piece probably can't be found!

 

[Iridium]

Thanx all for your useful replies. Sorry for my late response. I did know nothing about these kind of papers and after reading the relevant info of the links, the whole process of printing them looks quite interesting.

However, I decided to keep this pack sealed and give it a change to survive as an alive link in the history of photography.