Paris: Chez L'Auteur, [1861]. First edition. 16mo., 129 pp. Printed wrappers. A segment of the front wrapper, which was lacking, has been replace with no loss of text; author / title in holograph was added to the spine. A tear on the title page has been repaired on the blank recto, which also bears a single ink stamp reading "duplicate". Housed in a newly made cloth clamshell box with label on spine. Item #26097

Auguste Belloc, born in Paris in 1800, was a portrait miniaturist, watercolor painter and photographer of the nude. He took up making portraits with the daguerreotype and calotype processes by 1851. Belloc was one of the founding members of the Société Française de Photographie. In the 1850's he was inventing, manufacturing and selling photographic supplies and equipment, which he continued until his death in 1868. In 1869 Gaudenzio Marconi, who took over Belloc's sky lit studio, reproduced and published Belloc's exquisite nudes. Belloc was also a writer on photographic theory, processes, and techniques. Here Belloc covers the apparatus and sensitized materials used for "informal" photographic subjects, including a formulary. At the end is a (20 pp.) list of his photographic products for sale. OCLC locates only 10 copies worldwide.

Price: $650.00