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Record Details

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

Inventory Number: 56930
Object Type:
Persons: Sir John Frederick William Herschel (Photographer)
Date Created: 1839
Accession Number: 1928-71
Brief Description: Experimental photogenic drawing by Sir John Herschel, July 12, 1839, representing hypo fixing at its nearly perfected stage. One of 5 experimental photogenic drawings which Herschel has put aside in a packet (packet 18 in the Museum's numbering) inscribed 'Class. C | Spoiled and Bad | Photographs | To be merely preserved | as memoranda'.

Subject: engraving 16938, landscape with shrine and ruins
Technique: contact copy
Format: horizontal
Polarity: negative
Orientation: laterally reversed
Quality: x
Colour: pale sepia image, strong brown border
Chemistry: silver based, hypo fixed
Coating: none
Inscription: number, date
Paper: xxx
Condition: good
Purpose: a hypo fixing experiment at the near perfected stage; the image seems too good for the title of the package.

For fuller descriptive and historical commentary see narratives.
Primary Inscriptions: '541. July 12' [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
92 124 mm

Narratives

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