Abstract

When the Photothek of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence acquired the Fotoatelier Hautmann glass negatives in 2016, they were in a critical condition and it seemed inconceivable that more than just a handful of them might be salvaged from the great mass of partially stuck-together negatives, paper sleeves and other materials from the estate of the Florence studio that Anton Hautmann (1821–1862) had first founded in 1858. Yet in the course of the cataloguing and conservation work done to date, over 1,353 negatives have indeed been rescued, conserved and integrated into the holdings of the Photothek, where researchers are already working on them. The heap of sherds left over at the end of the process turned out to be relatively small. It is these sherds, initially singled out, that form the focus of this text, which analyzes their function as historical fragments with specific material properties – and much more.

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