Lerebours, N [Noël] - P [Paymal]

TRAITÉ DE PHOTOGRAPHIE DERNIERS PERFECTIONNEMENTS APPORTÉS AU DAGUERRÉOTYPE [QUATRIÈME ÉDITION]:

Paris: N.-P. Lerebours, 1843. Fourth ed. 8vo., (iv), 203 pp., folding plate, plus 16 pp. catalogue. Cloth backed marbled paper over boards with a morocco spine label. The half-title shows modest soiling; occasional scattered foxing with a small stain to the top blank corner of the last few leaves; the original owner has signed his name on the blank reverse of the title page with bleed-through; else very good. Item #51857

N.P. Lerebours is most noted for his publications EXCURSIONS DAGUERRIENNES (1841-1844) the first large-scaled publication illustrated from photographs, as well as for his manufacture of apparatuses, of which he was among the first. In his TREATISE, he discusses the underlying theory of the photographic process, and the numerous practical methodologies of the day. Even though it is largely concerned with the daguerreotype, there are sections on the galvanographic process to make prints from daguerreotypes, with a compilation of writings by the inventors or practitioners themselves, the list of which reads as a European directory of the most famous of the period, and the gravure process of Fizeau. Although stated as the fourth edition, it should be referred to as the fourth enlarged and revised edition; his earlier publications had various other titles and were less than half the length of this work. The appended catalog lists all manner of photographic apparatus and is priced. There are several pages concerned with his publication, EXCURSIONS DAGUERRIENNES, and the various contents that could be ordered.

WorldCat locates eight copies in European libraries, witha single North American copy, the University of Ottawa. Roosens and Salu No. 2842. Bellier de la Chavignerie, Manuel Bibliographie du Photographe Francais, 1863, No. 18. In Catalogue 52, Commemorating the Centenary of Fox Talbot and Daguerre 1839 - 1939, E. P. Goldschmidt called this, "the first standard hand-book of photography."

Price: $2,500.00