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Record Details

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

Inventory Number: 65354
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 hypo fixing experiment and for use in positive printing experiments. Oiled for enhanced translucency. This is the negative used by Schultze to make a modern positive, reproduced in his 1965 article (figure 1, p.59).

Subject: engraving 17583, desert landscape with camel
Technique: contact copy
Format: horizontal
Polarity: negative
Orientation: laterally reversed
Quality: good
Colour: dark brown and amber, dark border
Chemistry: silver based, hypo fixed
Coating: oiled
Inscription: none
Paper: thin
Condition: very fragile and brittle, cracks (especially at one corner) and one tear, surface abrasions
Purpose: probably a hypo fixing experiment, but made chiefly as a negative for use in positive printing experiments.

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
70 114 mm

Narratives

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