Dieppe, France as Stanhope microphotographs.
Category
Photographs
Date
1860 - 1900
Materials
Bone, Glass, Metal
Measurements
24 x 21 x 9 mm
Collection
Fox Talbot Museum, Wiltshire
NT 1521186
Summary
A carved bone binoculars Stanhope, with microphotographic wet plate collodion images on glass, mounted behind a magnifying lens. There are 4 images of Dieppe, France. The images are contained in the righthand eye view. The binoculars are held together with two bands of gold coloured metal. The word 'Dieppe' is written in black on the lefthand body of the eye view. 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