Dating French kodachrome mounts

[Anon Ymous]

Hello everybody.

Today I got some slides in the mail, which happen to be kodachrome, processed in France. By the looks of the photographs, they were taken back in the fifties, at most early sixties and look like they were processed yesterday. Unlike American kodachrome slide mounts, which are well documented, the French ones are not, so the timeframe escapes me. So, does anyone know when the following cardboard slide mounts were used by the French K-lab?

 

[MattKing]

Any chance there are dates embossed into the mounts?

 

[Anon Ymous]

Any chance there are dates embossed into the mounts?

Sadly, no. American slide mounts of the same era didn't have either AFAIK.

 

[Ian Grant]

My father's UK Kodachrome mounts had a printed date, that's from about 1956 to 1964/5 when he stopped taking photos after he bought my mother an Instamatic.

Most of his Kodachromes are fading badly.

Ian

 

[Anon Ymous]

My father's UK Kodachrome mounts had a printed date, that's from about 1956 to 1964/5 when he stopped taking photos after he bought my mother an Instamatic.

To be more precise, the US 1950-1955 red border kodachrome slides that I have don't have dates embossed on them, later ones do I assume.

Most of his Kodachromes are fading badly.

Rather unusual, isn't it?

 

[AgX]

You might open the mount and look for a an edge signing.

But I have not got a Kodak-Pathe edge code...

 

[MattKing]

I'm currently going through the thousands of Kodachrome slides that my father left at his passing. Most are processed in Canada, but a fair few are USA processed.
The oldest I have found are probably from 1947 and are badly faded. Most of the rest (so far) are in excellent shape.
Most have now hard to read printed dates on the mounts, but some have embossed dates.
And then there are the strange outliers, like Kodacolour transparencies, or non-Kodak processed 127 Ektachrome or what I expect are duplicate transparencies where there are either no dates or dates that are later than makes sense.
Word to the wise - if you can do this before your parents are gone - do so!

 

[MattKing]

By chance did your slides come to you in the original Kodak boxes? I ask because in my slide organizing efforts I just noticed that many of the Kodak cardboard slide boxes I have from the 1960s have a date code (e.g. "5/65") on the end of the boxes.

 

[Anon Ymous]

By chance did your slides come to you in the original Kodak boxes? I ask because in my slide organizing efforts I just noticed that many of the Kodak cardboard slide boxes I have from the 1960s have a date code (e.g. "5/65") on the end of the boxes.

No, it was just these two slides in an envelope, but thanks for the tip anyway.