RECHERCHES PHOTOGRAPHIQUES: PHOTOGRAPHIE SUR VERRE. HÉLIOCHROMIE. GRAVURE HÉLIOGRAPHIQUE. - NOTES ET PROCÉDÉS DIVERS. SUIVIES DE CONSIDÉRATIONS PAR M. E. CHEVREUL; AVEC UNE PRÉFACE BIOGRAPHIE ET DES NOTES PAR M. ERNEST LACAN.
Paris: Alexis Gaudin et Frères, 1855. First edition. 8vo., xxiv, 140 pp. Lacking the engraved portrait frontispiece. Quarter calf and marbled paper over boards, gilt-title within gilt rules on spine, which is moderately rubbed. [bound with] Blanquart-Évrard, M. [Louis Désiré] TRAITÉ DE PHOTOGRAPHIE SUR PAPIER; AVEC UNE INTRODUCTION PAR M. GEORGES VILLE. Paris: Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret, 1851. 8vo., L, 199 pp. Scattered foxing; very good. [bound with] BULLETIN DE LA SOCIÉTÉ FRANÇAISE DE PHOTOGRAPHIE, 1857. 8vo., 391 pp., with the photolithographic plate by Poitevin. Very good. Item #52913
RECHERCHES PHOTOGRAPHIQUES is a very important collection of the official memoirs presented to the French Academy of Science by the "nephew" (actually, his second cousin) of J.N. Niépce, Niépce de Saint-Victor. Beginning his experiments in photography in 1847, his progress by the next year afforded him the opportunity to report on his invention of photography on glass. Niépce de Saint-Victor presented the first practical glass plate negative process, using at first starch and later albumen as the emulsion base, which was in turn used by many French photographers of this period... The author is also credited with the early development of photographic gravure printing." THE SOURCES OF MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY, Arno Press.
Roosens and Salu No. 7480. Sufficiently rare as to be overlooked by Bellier de la Chavignerie, Manuel Bibliographie du Photographe Francais, 1863. WorldCat locates only six copies, among the holdings are: University of California - Riverside, National Gallery of Canada Library, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.
Blanquart-Evrard was responsible for great improvements in the printing on paper of photographs. He initially improved upon Talbot's Calotype, and Niépce de Saint-Victor's work with negatives on glass [see above entry]. This manual provided a procedural for making albumen prints, which revolutionized the production and clarity of the negative/positive print. A rare and important manual.
IMAGINING PARADISE p.165. Roosens and Salu No. 925. Sufficiently rare as to be overlooked by Bellier de la Chavignerie, Manuel Bibliographie du Photographe Francais, 1863. WorldCat lists twelve copies; among the holdings are: National Gallery of Canada Library, Royal Danish Library, and the British Library.
Price: $4,000.00