Malvern as Stanhope microphotographs.
Category
Photographs
Date
1860 - 1900
Materials
Bone, Glass
Measurements
164 x 14 mm
Order this imageCollection
Fox Talbot Museum, Wiltshire
NT 1521185
Summary
A carved bone letter opener Stanhope, with microphotographic wet plate collodion images on glass, mounted behind a magnifying lens. There are 6 images of Malvern. The images are contained in the ball of the carved handle. The handle has ornate patterning and a cut out design. The letter opener knife is plain. There is a small label on the knife, handwritten in blue ink, no. 545. A Stanhope is an optical device that enables the viewing of microphotographs without using a microscope. Invented by René Dagron in 1857, Stanhopes bypassed the need for an expensive microscope to view the microscopic photographs by attaching the microphotograph at the end of a modified Stanhope lens (Charles Stanhope was the originator of the lens).
Provenance
Part of the Fenton Collection. A gift from British Film Institute in 2017. From 1986-1999, part of BFI collection for the Museum of the Moving Image. BFI purchased collection in 1986 from James Fenton's Museum of Photography, Port Erin, Isle of Man 1976-1986