Item #52115 PHOTOGRAPHIE AU SPERMACÉTI; PEINTURE À LA CIRE, OU L'ART DE LA MINIATURE RENDU AUSSI FACILE QUE LE COLORIS SUR PLAQUE SANS SAVOIR NI PEINDRE NI DESSINER; PRÉCÉDE D'UN TRAITÉ COMPLET DE PHOTOGRAPHIE, CONTENANT LES PROCÉDÉS NOUVEAUX POUR FAIRE DES FONDS DE PAYSAGES, LES CIELS, ETC., ETC. Émile Pinot.

PHOTOGRAPHIE AU SPERMACÉTI; PEINTURE À LA CIRE, OU L'ART DE LA MINIATURE RENDU AUSSI FACILE QUE LE COLORIS SUR PLAQUE SANS SAVOIR NI PEINDRE NI DESSINER; PRÉCÉDE D'UN TRAITÉ COMPLET DE PHOTOGRAPHIE, CONTENANT LES PROCÉDÉS NOUVEAUX POUR FAIRE DES FONDS DE PAYSAGES, LES CIELS, ETC., ETC.

Paris: Desloges, 1859. First edition with this title. 8vo., 167 pp., [1], 8 adverts. Original printed wrappers which are largely eroded at the spine, toned with some chipping at the edges. The text is foxed with a dampstain at the lower blank margin. A good copy. Item #52115

An interesting manual on the technique of making photographic miniatures on ivory or glass to resemble ivory. The basic principle of the Ivorytype was patented by John E. Mayal in England in 1855. A collodion or albumen photographic image was either produced or transferred to the surface of artificial ivory and then hand colored to resemble a painter's miniature. There were several variations upon this process, including this manual which describes the use of spermaceti for a hot wax coating on the paper photograph to transfer the image to the ivory or glass, and then colored.

This manual is known by a single copy at the New York Public Library. However, in 1857, Pinot wrote, also published by Desloges, a manual entitled, PHOTOGRAPHIE - IVOIRE; OU L'ART DE FAIRE DES MINIATURES RENDU..., the remainder of the title being the same as the 1859 title. The title page of the 1859 copy is printed on a lightweight stock while the text in printed on a much heavier stock, and the printed wrapper states "2m Édition." This leads this cataloguer to surmise that the 1857 edition, which is listed in Bellier de la Chavignerie, Manuel Bibliographie du Photographe Francais, as No. 96, and with WorldCat locating seven copies at: the British Library, Imperial College London, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, the National Gallery of Canada, et al., sold poorly and was released with a more exciting title two years later. Obviously, given the scarcity of copies extant, the sales of the 1859 edition fared no better.

Price: $1,500.00

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