London: John Churchill, 1855. First edition. 12mo., xvi, 384 pp., errata, figures in text. Publisher's gilt and blind-embossed cloth. There is a short closed tear on the half-title page with no loss, and a private library stamp on the front free endpaper and blank margin of the preface. The rear hinge is a tiny bit weak; a near fine copy. INSCRIBED "with the author's compts" to Dr. A [Arthur] Farre, with his engraved armorial bookplate affixed to the front pastedown. Item #26308

First published in 1855, this manual quickly became the standard for its time. According to Eder "It is particularly valuable because he treated photo-chemistry exhaustively and gave an original and very useful method for the production of photographic collodion cotton..." Sipley, in PHOTOGRAPHY'S GREAT INVENTORS calls this "...the first manual of photo-chemistry." It is actually the first manual of photographic chemistry in the English language.

Dr. Arthur Farre was a Fellow of the Royal Society, a prominent obstetrician and made "physician extraordinary" to The Queen.

OCLC locates ten copies. Gernsheim - INCUNABULA OF BRITISH PHOTOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 1839 - 1875, No. 739 incorrectly lists the first edition as having 530 pp. The Harry Ransom Center, the repository of the Gernsheim Collection, shows the first edition of 1855 as having 384 pp. (as does ours) and no copies among their numerous editions having 530 pp. Roosens and Salu No. 1836 follows the same pagination mistake as Gernsheim.

Price: $1,000.00