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Record Details

Photograph (Experimental Photogenic Drawing), by Sir John Herschel, March 28, 1839

Inventory Number: 57396
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, March 28, 1839, made as a fixing experiment during the earliest phase of his photographic researches. One of two similarly annotated (see 60874). An unsuccessful trial of potassium ferrocyanide as an alternative to hypo.

Subject: engraving, barely discernible image, light border
Technique: contact copy (print) from a negative
Format: inscription vertical
Polarity: positive
Orientation: not apparent
Quality: image barely discernible
Colour: pale blue, cloudy, both sides
Chemistry: silver based, fixed with potassium ferrocyanide
Coating: none
Inscription: chemical note, date, quality note
Paper: xxx
Condition: good
Purpose: a fixing experiment using very dilute potassium ferrocyanide.

For fuller descriptive and historical commentary see narratives.
Primary Inscriptions: 'FC Pot [1 over 100] Mar 28 a spoiled | one' [ferrocyanate of potash; 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
120 97 mm

Narratives

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