[photo-3d] Re: copying viewcards

[quellen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Help! As a newcomer to the site, I'm not sure this is a legal topic. But if
it is "legal", I'd like to ask for advice on the following topic. I have
been delegated by my family in the antipodes the task of copying about 200
Holmes format sepia-toned stereo viewcards from the 1880s. These are family
views, with some of my dad at age 4 or 5, and some he took in his teens.
Also, the 100-card set done by my grandfather Walter Burke, FRPS, titled
"New Zealand Through the Stereoscope" of which only one of the boxed sets
is known to exist.
I had proposed to use the graphic arts camera in our printing plant to copy
the prints using Kodak 8 x 10 or 8 1/2 x 11 copy film. I would sort them as
to density scale, then shoot them 3 up on 8 1/2 x 11 or two up on 8 x 10. I
would send the sheet film out to a professional processing place for
developing, and request ten contact prints of each sheet of film (price
break 10 up). Then, dry mount, or vacuum adhesive mount, the prints on mat
board, cut them to size and round-corner.
I'd appreciate any comments from anyone who knows about copying old views.
I do not wish to copy them onto any electronic media. One problem I've
already run into is that the place I'd planned to use in San Diego (Poster
Factory) can't handle 8 1/2 x 11 in its developing tanks for black & white
sheet film, though it can handle  8 1/2 x 11 contact prints.
I would also like to make/have made, the original "book boxes" that
Keystone and Underwood used for their boxed sets. This is how Grandad's
viewcards were marketed. Is anybody out there making these boxes? If not,
do you suppose collectors or printmakers would be interested in buying them
if I were to find out what is involved and set up a production line?
Any advice or comment would be appreciated. Thanks, Quentin Burke.