William Henry Fox Talbot
The Pencil of Nature

Public Domain

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Artist William Henry Fox Talbot British, 1800–1877

CultureBritish

Titles

The Pencil of Nature

Date1844

Place depictedEngland

MediumBook of salted paper prints from paper negatives

DimensionsSheet (varies): 6 1/4 × 7 7/8 in. (15.8 × 20 cm)
Sheet (varies): 9 1/16 × 9 in. (23 × 22.8 cm)
Overall (Closed): 11 15/16 × 9 5/8 × 13/16 in. (30.4 × 24.5 × 2 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number2020.346.1-.11

Not on view

Explore Further

Department

Photography

Object Type

BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS

DescriptionAlthough not as dazzlingly precise as the
contemporaneous daguerreotype process (examples
of which are displayed in the nearby case), William Henry Fox Talbot’s photographic
process had the great advantage of producing multiple positive prints from a
single negative made in the camera. To promote his invention and demonstrate
its utility, Talbot produced The Pencil of Nature, the first
commercially published book illustrated with photographs. Like Gutenberg’s
invention of moveable type, photography forever changed the transmission of
knowledge, and The Pencil of Nature represents a revolution in the
history of publishing and the art of the book.
ProvenanceParts 1, 3, and 4 given by Lady Elizabeth Fielding (mother of William Henry Fox Talbot) to Rev. Jermyn Pratt, of Ryston Hall, Downham, Norfolk, England; by descent to his son, Edward Roger Murray Pratt (1847-1921); with Francis Edwards, London, 1966 (his catalogue 895); George Rinhart, Patterson, North Carolina; purchased by Miller-Plummer Collection of Photography [Harvey S. Shipley Miller and J. Randall Plummer, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania]; [sold at Christies, NY, October 8, 2009, lot 552]; [purchased by Hans P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2020.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Inscribed in ink, flyleaf: E.R. Pratt Rebound 1898
Stamped lettering in gilt on spine: Sun Pictures, H Fox Talbot, 1844

Catalogue raisonnéSchaaf census, no. 51. Individual plates [in order] are Schaaf nos. 1461, 128, 68, 69, 190, 1574, 2771, 74, 312, 3664, 913.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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