SWISS B&W paper, made by CIBA

George Papantoniou

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No, this is unfortunately not about a new paper...

I found (someone gave a few unopened pack of it to a student of mine) some B&W paper labeled "SARITONA". On the box you can read:

SARITONA SD 84 (or SD 17, or SN 56 or SN 54 etc, depending on the type of surface and weight), warmton vergroesserungs und kontakt papier (for the not-german speaking of you "Warm-toned Enlarging and Contact Paper"), CIBA photochimie SA Fribourg / Swisse, Made in Switzerland.


I had absolutely no idea the Swiss ever manufactured B&W paper (they did - or still do, I don't know - the Cibachrome, of course, that is another story)...

Since they had this thing going with Ilford, why on earth would they want to coat their own B&W paper ?

I will test that paper to see the amount of fogging and tell you about it...

Does anyone have any experience with "Saritona" ??
 

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dynachrome

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Ciba Paper

In the 1970s I worked at General Photo & Supply in Boston part-time while I was in college. The store came into a large supply of b&w photo paper with the name Bromars. The Ciba name was somewhere on the label too and that was a selling point. I bought a few boxes of the stuff but couldn't get any contrast out of it no matter what I did. After that I stuck to papers like Kodak Kodabrome and Agfa Brovira, with much better results.
 

Monophoto

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George Papantoniou said:
I had absolutely no idea the Swiss ever manufactured B&W paper (they did - or still do, I don't know - the Cibachrome, of course, that is another story)...
Click to expand...

In the late 1980's, Ciba sold the "cibachrome" product line to Ilford where it became known as Ilfocrhome.
 
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OP

George Papantoniou

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Yes, Ilford was owned by Ciba for a period of time (I am not sure about this, Simon can throw more light to it, I hope) but the Cibachrome paper was named Cibachrome before that. Actually, Bela Gaspar invented the Dye-Destruction (Dye-Bleach)colour emulsion in 1930, with the first practical success in 32 and 35. The Cibachrome paper was first introduced in 1963, when Ilford was not yet in Ciba's hands. When the shares changed hands and Ciba sold Ilford (it was International Paper that bought them, if I'm not mistaken) with them went the Cibachrome patent. So, the dye-destruction colour paper was renamed "Ilfochrome". But I guess the B&W paper I have in my hands must come from the period when Ilford was in Ciba's hands, that is why I don't understand why they needed to coat their own B&W paper.

I am not sure I am so good in Ilford's (and, especially, Ciba's) history. If I am wrong, please correct me...
 

Simon R Galley

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Dear George,

You are very good on ILFORDs history, there was a Swiss coating company called TELKO based in Fribourg that CIBA bought before ILFORD in the centre of town, that must be where this paper comes from, then CIBA built the new plant at Marly, just outside Fribourg to coat CIBACHROME / ILFOCHROME the old TELKO factory in the centre of Fribourg was used as the finishing department until a couple of years ago.

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited.
 
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George Papantoniou

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Thank you Simon, this is very enlightening. So, my paper was made in Fribourg by Ciba in the TELKO plant... and that was before 1969 (when Ciba bought the Ilford shares...) !!!

I haven't yet tested the paper, but if it's pre-1969, there is not much hope...
 
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