Restoring a seriously damaged glass plate

Phase 2 and 3 of  the digital restoration of a
seriously damaged glass negative
from the 1910s.

This is my first attempt at a very severly damaged glass plate from Austria-Hungary around 1910.
The emulsion is washed down by water in the left hand side, and there is a sustained chemical stains, mainly from fixing mistakes on the right hand side. There are scratches, water strains, and possibly a worm's print on the glass plate that was found on the floor of a derelict attic in a Budapest house.
The theme is interesting: it depicts a steam donkey (steam-powered logging engine) with the machinist and peasants, women and children somewhere in Hungary.
With different masking, curve (tone and contrast) adjustment the theme is visible, however, the layers are smootly blended.
Any ideas how on to work with such a damaged plate are welcome.

Learning, researching and understanding

The Dutch Photography Museum (Nederlands Fotomuseum) is one of the primary museums of the world. Not only a great place of exhibition, but also a fantastic resource for private collectors and researchers. The online catalog offers information and preview over 300,000 digitized items.
The museum shop (and webshop) offers all materials needed for storing and restoring private archives. And its educational programs, from one-day workshops to excellent online material offer practical training to the preservation, use, research and further use of photographic materials. A vast amount of the collection can not only be reviewed, but copies can be ordered in file format or in prints.
The greatest thing is the online educational program (together with such prestigious institutions as the Huis Marseille in Amsterdam (contemporary photograpy), the FotoMuseum in Antwerpen and the Fotodok in Utrecht (documentary). Fotoleren.nl is available only in Dutch, and it is a fantastic resource for photographers, collectors and archivists.

Perutz - Maybe this one will do

Perutz

A boxful of glass plate positives were taken of Perutz around 1917, most of the described as 'not good enough, maybe for testing', but on this one the photographer carved a handling text under the emulsion: 'This may be good'. (Unknown soldier of Austria-Hungary, unknown photographer).

Your Jenny - Love note from 1931

Csacsikád, a photo by antaldaniel on Flickr

I started to work on a small heritage today on glass plates and some vintage prints. The prints may have been mixed with other materials. I found a touching love note from 1931, taken in Hungary's holiday resort Keszthely.

"Never forget your two-legged jenny
With love
Your Olga"

12 July 1931.

Transparent secrets

First glass negative, 9x12 cm
family on a drasine by Hilda Bonin

I started learning photography as a child in a family where almost everybody learned this craft. At that time, two old relatives of mine were still alive at a very old age, and gifted me a vast collection of vintage negatives.
Ella Bonin (b. 1897) was a pianist and teacher, a student of Béla Bartók, and an amateur photographer in most of her very long life. Her younger sister, Hilda Bonin learned photography in the beginning of the 20th century and worked on large formats before the WWII. We have developed a good number of their negatives in 1989, but unfortunately their memories started to fade.
The Bonin Archive is vast and little documented, but I believe it is an almost unique treasure of Central European middle class photographs. After a lot of hesitation and preparation I started to digitize, research and document it in 2012.
The Bonin Archive consists of various, European-format large format glass negatives, a few vintage prints and some 6x6 medium format film from Hilda Bonin, and a vast collection of 6x9 medium  format amateur fim negatives shot by a Zeiss Ikon by Ella Bonin.
With a lifelong passion for photography, I always had a calling for this. However, the first re-opened glass negative was a love for the first sight. I decided to collect glass material, blog about my research and hope to find collectors, enthusiasts, collaborators.
I write a parallel Hungarian-language blog.
I am ready to share ideas about technology, scanning, and post images upon request. I maintain the Hungarian version to encourage people in my country to go out and find their visual heritage in their homes.