1269.e.26

Imprint: [Vienna, 1840.]

The work consists of three pages of historical observations ('Geschichtliche Bermerkung') on the daguerreotype, dated Vienna, 3 August 1840, followed by three examples of daguerreotype etchings, pasted down onto blank leaves, with handwritten inscriptions beneath. Josef Maria Eder's 'History of photography' (translated by Edward Epstean, Dover Publications, New York, 1978), p. 333, calls for five illustrations: '...the dome of St Stephan Church, in Vienna, and two other architectural views of it, a reproduction of a copperplate engraving, and a mezzotint.' The illustrations in the British Library copy comprise a reproduction of a painting or engraving, and two view of St Stephen's Church.Berres' process was the first practical method of etching daguerreotype plates for printing. He first varnished the daguerreotype, before exposing it to the steam of weak nitric acid. The daguerreotype was then coated with gum arabic and finally immersed in nitric acid (see Susan Barger and William White, 'The daguerreotype. Nineteenth-century technology and modern science' (John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1991), p. 43).