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Talbot, William Henry Fox
(1800-1877)The Ladder

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Fotografie des 19. – 21. Jahrhunderts (Katalog nur online verfügbar)
Auktionsdatum 6.6.2026

The Ladder from "The Pencil of Nature", plate XIV. 1844. Varnished salted paper print, mounted to board. 16,8 x 18 cm (mount ca. 23,4 x 30,5 cm). With an ink outline around the image; original paper label on the verso reading “PATENT TALBOTYPE or SUN PICTURES,” numbered “14” in ink, and annotated in ink: “At Lacock Abbey, Wilts.”

A central figure in the invention of photography, Henry Fox Talbot developed the negative-positive process and understood photography as both a scientific and artistic medium, laying the groundwork for all later photographic reproduction. This print of The Ladder was most likely varnished by Talbot himself; as noted by Larry Schaaf, such varnishing was uncommon and undertaken only briefly as part of early experiments to improve the permanence of photographic prints. With only three other varnished examples known, the present work constitutes an important and rare document in the early history of photography.

Literatur: Larry J. Schaaf. The Photographic Art of William Henry Fox Talbot. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000, see pp. 200-201.