Henry Fox Talbot
1844, 1 May
The Pencil of Nature

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A Monthly List of all New Books Published in Great Britain sold by Mr. C. Muquardt, Bruxelles,New Series - No.XXII, May 1, 1844, p.87.
 
The Pencil of Nature,
By H. Fox Talbot, Esq.
In a few days.
 
The new art of Photography was announced to the world almost simultaneously in France and England, at the commencement of the year 1839, by M. Daguerre and by the author of the present work. The processes employed were at first kept secret, but when they became known they were found to be exceedingly different. The French method, which has received the name of the Daguerreotype, is executed upon plates of polished silver, while paper is employed in the English process. The Daguerreotype is now well known to the public, having been extensively used for taking portraits from the life, while the English art (called Fhotogenic Drawing, or the Calotype) has been hitherto chiefly circulated in private societies, and is consequently less generally known.
 
It has been thought, therefore, that a collection of genuine specimens of the art, in most of its branches, cannot fail to be interesting to a large class of persons who have hitberto had no opportunity of seeing any well-executed specimens. It must be understood that the plates of the work now offered to the public are the pictures themselves, obtained by the action of light, and not engravings in imitation of them. This explanation is necessary, because some well-executed engravings have been published in France in imitation of photography, but they want the character of truth and reality which that art so eminently possesses. Indeed it is easy to see at once that the figures of men and animals in the foreground of the French engravings have been added only from the artist's fancy. The plates of the present work will be executed with the greatest care, entirely by optical and chemical processes. It is not intended to have them altered in any way, and the scenes represented will contain nothing but the genuine touches of nature's pencil.
 
It is proposed to publish the work in 10 or 12 monthly parts, in quarto, price 15s. Each. Each part containing four plates, with descriptive letterpress.
 
[Please note: The advert has been converted from a two column format in the original into a single column here for ease of reading.]
 
LL/35200