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Record Details

Photograph (Experimental Photogenic Drawing), by Sir John Herschel, 1839

Inventory Number: 25876
Object Type:
Persons: Sir John Frederick William Herschel (Photographer)
Date Created:
Accession Number: 1928-71
Brief Description: Experimental photogenic drawing by Sir John Herschel, undated but 1839, made as a fixing experiment. One of five copies, all very pale, of an unusually dense engraving (42995, 68601, 71410, 99742).

Subject: engraving 29622, girl with lion
Technique: contact print
Format: vertical
Polarity: negative
Orientation: laterally reversed
Quality: very faint, blotchy
Colour: pale purple and sepia, brown border
Chemistry: silver based, probably fixed with water or hypo
Coating: none
Inscription: none
Paper: thin, larger than usual
Condition: good
Purpose: a fixing experiment, and test of copying a particularly dense engraving.

For fuller descriptive and historical commentary see narratives.
Primary Inscriptions:
Provenance: Presented by Miss Herschel and Lady Lubbock in 1928. They were the two surviving and youngest children of Sir John Herschel (Francisca and Constance).
Collection Group: Herschel's Photographic Experiments
Material(s): Paper
Dimensions:
Height Width Depth Diameter Unit
159 126 mm

Narratives

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