Count of Thomar

António Bernardo da Costa Cabral, the fourth Count of Thomar (1901-1974), began to display his taste for photography at a very early age. He took part in both national and international exhibitions of photographic art, and was a member of Foto-Clube 6x6, an amateur photographic club. He took pictures of his private circle of family and friends, as well as some of the trips that he took around Europe. In Lisbon, where he lived, he captured simple and discreet moments of the everyday life of the city’s inhabitants, until the very last years of his life. Some of his images were signed with the pseudonyms of RAMOT and MARTO, anagrams of Tomar. 

As a result of the donation made by the photographer’s heirs, the collection was incorporated into the Lisbon Municipal Archive. It consisted of 14,000 images produced on various types of supports (glass, film and paper) and through a range of different photographic processes, besides a collection of written documentation and photographic equipment. After its reception, the collection’s state of conservation was analysed and an assessment was made of the need for its restoration and the treatment of documents, through their digitisation and by making them available to the public.

Preventive conservation inhibits the effects of deterioration and incorrect handling. Restoration recovers documents that have been damaged or are in a state of deterioration, without causing any alterations to the original. The Archive stores the collections deposited there under conditions of controlled temperature and relative humidity, which are essential for the conservation of photographs. The collection’s state of conservation was assessed and those prints and negatives that were in need of repair were restored.

Above all, this collection presents photographs printed directly onto collodion or gelatin paper (from 1885 to 1920) and others printed on baryta paper with or without toning (from 1885 to the present day).
The identification of the photographic process, resulting from the study of an enlarged image, makes it possible to observe the binding agent and the photographic process that was used by studying the tone, shine and fibres of the photograph.

A Voigtlander stereoscopic camera was donated, with a magazine for 12 glass plates measuring 6x13cm, along with a case, various filters, a remote shutter release cable and other photographic materials and equipment: MINOX and KODAK developing tanks, an 8mm film projector, a slide projector and several instruction manuals. All the cameras and equipment were cleaned, preserved, stabilised and packaged.