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Record Details

Photograph (Experimental Photogenic Drawing, Cyanotype), by Sir John Herschel, c.1842

Inventory Number: 28492
Object Type:
Persons: Sir John Frederick William Herschel (Photographer)
Date Created:
Accession Number: 1928-71
Brief Description: Experimental photogenic drawing (cyanotype) by Sir John Herschel, undated, c.1842, made in the course of the experiments in which he invented the cyanotype.

Subject: engraving, lady outdoors holding book on her knee
Technique: contact copy (print) from a negative???
Format: vertical
Polarity: positive
Orientation: correct???
Quality: good detail, too dark in places???
Colour: dark blue with very dark darks and pale blue lights, uneven pale blue to natural border, rusty stain, plain back with slight blue stains
Chemistry: cyanotype, Herschel's numbers indicate two sensitising mixtures mixed, 716 being ammonio-tartrate of iron (see 48235)
Coating: none
Inscription: numbers
Paper: normal
Condition: good
Purpose: a cyanotype experiment.

For fuller descriptive and historical commentary see narratives.
Primary Inscriptions: '724 + 716 mixed' [in Herschel's hand].
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
132 104 mm

Narratives

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