Henry Fox Talbot
1844, 24 October
Abbotsford
[Sun Pictures in Scotland]

Salt print, from a calotype negative printed on Whatman paper
15.3 x 22 cm (18.4 x 23 cm)
 
Bassenge Photography Auctions
5 December 2018, Photography, Auction: 112, Lot: 4081
 
Watermark J. WhatmanTurkey Mill 1840.
 
This image appeared as plate 3 in Sun Pictures in Scotland. Abbotsford was the home of Sir Walter Scott. Talbot's hope for commercial exploitation of his invention lay in the widespread distribution of large editions of photographic prints, the principal advantage of negative-positive process over the daguerreotype. In early 1844, in an effort to encourage the mass production of paper photographs, Talbot supported Nicolaas Henneman, his former valet, in the creation of a photographic printing establishment in Reading, a town on the route between London and his home in Lacock. The firm's initial project was Talbot's "Pencil of Nature", the first commercially published book illustrated with photographs.
 
LL/85332