Paris: Librairie Encyclopédique Roret, 1851. First edition. 8vo., l, 199 pp. Contemporary cloth-backed marbled paper over boards, rubbed along the edges. The foxing on the title page diminishes to mild as the text progresses; the last 80 pages show a faint dampstain along the lower edge, which increases towards the last leaves. Item #54401

Helmut Gernsheim's HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAHY, 1969, p. 187-189, notes that Blanquart-Évrard's advancements in printing marked the beginning of a new era of photography by introducing a "very considerable improvement of Talbot's calotype process." The calotype offered very contrasty images and were lacking in halftone sensibilities; Talbot's process brushed the silver nitrate onto the paper, where Blanquart-Évrard floated the paper in the silver solution, which provided a surface impregnated with silver nitrate and therefore, much more light sensitive and able to more fully record gradations in tonality. In this 1851 publication, he provided a procedural for the preparation of glass plate negatives with albumen, and subsequently, he introduced albumen paper for positive prints which revolutionized the production and clarity of the paper print. A rare and important manual which covers all the early paper processes.


Roosens and Salu No. 925. Bellier de la Chavignerie, Manuel Bibliographie du Photographe Francais, 1863, does not list this title indicating, its scarcity. Imagining Paradise p.165.

Price: $1,850.00