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Record Details

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

Inventory Number: 84581
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. The inscription is unusual, as is its position along the top of the front, suggesting a departure from the usual experimental procedures.

Subject: engraving, no image
Technique: contact copy (print) from a negative
Format: inscription horizontal
Polarity: positive
Orientation: not apparent
Quality: no visible image, double border
Colour: pale purple or lilac, streaky and blotchy
Chemistry: silver based (if the inscription is read as N it would mean silver nitrate), with sodium chloride
Coating: none
Inscription: seemingly a chemical note
Paper: thin
Condition: good
Purpose: probably a sensitising and positive printing experiment.

For fuller descriptive and historical commentary see narratives.
Primary Inscriptions: '13. IV + [?]Salt cream + IV + S + IV' along top of front [IV could perhaps be N (nitrate); 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
85 131 mm

Narratives

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