BRÉBISSON Alphonse de Nouvelle méthode photographique sur collodion donnant des épreuves instantanées ; traité complet des divers procédés.

Roosens and Salu, no. 2043 ; Bellier de la Chavignerie, Manuel Bibliographique du Photographe Français, 1863, No. 56.

First edition, with 2 woodcut illustrations and some marginal pencil notes.

“The first French work describing the collodion process. Botanist Brébisson was a founding member of the Société française de photographie. In this pioneer work, which was soon reprinted in 1853, he illustrated his innovative method of instantaneous dry collodion. The collodion process was first invented by English artist and photographer Frederick Scott Archer in 1851. Brébisson took part in the Exposition Universelle of London in 1862. Hundreds of his albumen and collodion prints are today kept in the French Médiathèque de l’architecture et du patrimoine. “Le ‘collodion anglais’ [invented by Archer in 1851] ne sera disponible dans les officines parisiennes qu’en janvier 1852, et le procédé ne commencera véritablement à être expérimenté par le praticiens qu’à partir du mois de mai, après la publication du premier traité sur le sujet : la ‘Nouvelle Méthode photographique sur collodion donnant des épreuves instantanées,’ d’Alphonse de Brébisson” (Gunthert. La Conquete de l’instantané. Archéologie de l’imaginaire photographique en France (1841-1895), PhD dissertation, 1999).

Only 3 copies only of the 1st edition are recorded in institutional libraries in the United States : George Eastman Museum Library (Gabriel Cromer Collection), Franklin Institute Science Museum, and University of Vermont (Billings Special Collections). Two more copies are recorded in OCLC : BNF, and the Institut de France. Brown stain to pages 75/76.

Provenance : Stamp of Maurice Lespiault (1821-1889) and some occasional notes. Lespiault was a French naturalist, painter and photographer, who was awarded the honourable mention for his photographic prints at the Exposition Universelle in 1855.

[Bound with:] CHEVALIER, Charles. Catalogue des daguerréotypes ou photographes perfectionnés et construits par Charles Chevalier. No place, no date, ca. 1852. 28 pp. (without the printed selfwrappers, included in pagination). Very scarce trade catalogue on photographic equipment and various materials used by early photographers. Either unrecorded in OCLC or just 1 copy in the US, if this is the same edition as the Columbia University copy. Provenance : Lespiault (rubber stamp)

[And :] MARTIN, Adolphe. Photographie nouvelle. Procédé pour obtenir des épreuves positives directes sur glace. Mémoire déposé le 20 juillet 1852 au secrétariat de la Société d’Encouragement. Paris, Chez Charles Chevalier, 1852. 23 pp. First edition, very rare. Adolphe-Alexandre Martin was a pioneer of photography and the inventor of the tintype. In his variation of the wet collodion technique, Martin placed a clear protective varnish over his collodion negative, which he first applied to glass and then later onto a black varnished metal plate. He then applied a colored varnish to the negative, which not only protected the image but also chemically converted it from negative to positive. This ambrotype modification – known interchangeably as tintype or ferrotype – was typically formatted in the carte-de-visite plate size of 2-1/2 x 4-4-1/2 inch, but Martin’s tintype plates were found to be as tiny as postage stamps. We located 3 institutional copies in the United States: NYPL, UC Riverside, and Epstean Collection of Books on Photography and Its Applications in the Graphic Arts (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library), an two additional copies in Europe: BL and BNF.

Provenance : Lespiault (rubber stamp).