Paris: Au Bureau du Cosmos et Chez Delahaye, 1855. First edition. 8vo., 104 pp. Printed wrappers are slightly edgeworn and show age-toning. Very good or better. Housed in a new quarter cloth and pastepaper clamshell box. Item #26195

Stéphane Geoffray (1827-1895) banker, lawyer and photographer, was the inventor of the waxed paper process with cerolein. This was an improvement upon Gustave Le Gray's waxed paper process and produced sharper and faster results. This and a similar collodion process for glass were described in a paper published in 1855.

This manual covers the sensitizing and processing of photographic papers, with details about gelatin coatings, making this among the earliest reference to suggest a viable commercial manufacturing of photographic papers.

Not listed in Bellier de la Chavignerie, Manuel Bibliographie du Photographe Francais, 1863. Roosens & Salu No. 7808. WorldCat locates copies at George Eastman House, Getty Research Center, University of Texas - Harry Ransom Center, National Gallery of Canada, and three European libraries.

Price: $1,500.00