The first experiments in colour photography occurred almost as soon as photography was invented in the 1830's. It was not however until the 1870's that the first successful colour images were taken and even then they were experimental and it was 1907 when the first commercial process, the Autochrome, was marketed by the Lumiere Brothers. It was expensive, and required long exposures as can be seen in the accompanying image taken in England in 1911. Autochromes were, when properly exposed, really beautiful with pastel colours and intense blues and reds.
The Paget process, which is fairly rare is shown in the image of London Docks circa 1915 below. Basically it was a black and white image taken through a special taking screen and when bound with a viewing screen a colour image could be seen. This was similar to the Finlay process which can be seen on the next page. The Paget system lasted from around 1910 until around 1920. Finlays and Autochromes until the advent of Dufaycolor and Kodachrome in the mid 1930's
