The Nativity, Jerusalem, as Stanhope microphotographs.
Category
Photographs
Date
1860 - 1900
Materials
Glass, Metal, Olivewood
Measurements
232 x 19 mm
Order this imageCollection
Fox Talbot Museum, Wiltshire
NT 1521192
Summary
A carved olivewood penholder and letter opener Stanhope, with microphotographic wet plate collodion images on glass, mounted behind a magnifying lens. There is 1 image of the Nativity, Jerusalem. The image viewed is: " Eglise de la Nativite". The image is contained in the ball on the top of the penholder handle. The penholder unscrews into two pieces and reveals the metal knib which is detachable. The olivewood handle is ornately carved with cut-outs and the paper knife blade is plain and marked with the word 'Jerusalem'. On the reverse of the blade is a white label, handwritten in blue ink, no. 1362 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