Oblong Folio Photo Album, 27 x 37.5 cm, Captions in French, Maroon Calf covers, slightly rubbed and soiled, damp stain to lower cover not affecting the plates, 60 views of the most famous monuments in the world, each plate followed by a descriptive text on separate sheet, occasional scattered foxing mainly to margins, Rittner et Goupil, Lerebours, Bossange, Paris, 1842. Algérie, Ste Hélène, Allemagne, Niagara, Londres, Pompée, Égypte (4), Nubie, Espagne (3), France (8), Grèce (3), Italie (24), Russie (3), Suède, Suisse, Syrie (5), Palestine, Album de 60 planches de gravures légendées A Paris, chez Rittner and Goupil, published by the optics of Lerebours, Mr. Bossange Plat titré en letters dorées Image: approx. 21x25cm Planche: approx. 26.5x36cm Album: 26 x 36.5 cm Succession Doctor Octave LABORDE-PEYRÉ

Synopsis

RARE. EARLIEST KNOWN PHOTOGRAPHS. Lerebour’s Excursions Daguerriennes was the most elaborate of a number of travel books published in the 1840s that used photography as the primary source. Issued in two volumes, with plates in the largest sets eventually numbering over 100, the Excursions gave its readers a detailed picture of some of the far-flung corners of the world at that time.
Janet Buerger, in an excellent account of Lerebours in her volume French Daguerreotypes, reports that the views chosen were culled from a reported 1,200 daguerreotypes. The diverse locales depicted included Niagara Falls, London, Algiers, Spain, France, Russia, Egypt, Jerusalem, Sweden, and Switzerland (op. cit., pp. 27 – 40). As Buerger describes, the majority of the engravings were made by tracing the outlines of the daguerreotyped images
onto paper, then adding a wealth of detail, and sometimes figures, by hand. Two plates of Paris, however, were reproduced by another method, adding to their veracity: a view of the Hotel de Ville and a detail of a bas-relief at the Tomb of the Virgin, Notre Dame, were printed directly from the daguerreotype plates themselves. In order to accomplish this, Lerebours employed the services of Hippolyte Fizeau, a student of Aragon at the Paris Observatory, who had devised a method of chemically etching the daguerreotype so that it could be used as a relief plate in printing. The results were far more ‘photographic’ than any other engravings made from daguerreotypes at that time. As Buerger points out, these Fizeau plates were the ‘first real photogravures in a major publication’ (ibid., p. 40), making the Excursions Daguerriennes a landmark in photographic printing.
List of the views in this album:
1- Grande Mosquee A Alger, Algeria, by Callow / 2- Maison De Longwood, Ste Helene, by Thienon / 3- Hotel De Ville De Breme, Germany, by Hurlimann / 4- Niagara Falls, North America, by Salathe / 5- Saint Paul a Londres, by Salathe / 6- Colonne De Pompee, Egypt, by Martens / 7- Harem De Mehemet-Ali A Alexandrie, Egypt, by Weber / 8- Louqsor, Egypt, by Martens / 9- Pyramide De Cheops, Egypt, by Riffaut / 10- Temple Hypethre Dans L’Ile De Philae, Nubie, by Bishop & Weber / 11- La Vallee Des Tombeaux, Egypt, by Salathe / 12- Alcazar De Seville, Spain, Riffaut / 13- Alhambra, Spain, by Salathe / 14- Grenada, Spain, by Salathe / 15- Arc De Triomphe D’Orange, France, by Hurlimann / 16- Les Arenes A Nimes, France, by Himley / 17- Maison Carree A Nismes, France, By Callow / 18- La Topur Magne A Nimes, France, by Lerebours / 19- Colonne de Juillet A Paris, by Hurlimann / 20- Vue Prise Du Pont Neuf A Paris, by Martens / 21- Porte Laterale De Notre Dame A Paris, by Himley / 22- St Germain L’Auxerrois A Paris, by Hurlimann / 23- L’Acropolis A Athenes, Greece, by Appert / 24- Le Parthenon A Athenes, Greece, by Martens / 25- Les Propylees A Athenes, Greece, by Riffaut / 26- Arc De Constantin A Rome, Italy, by Himley / 27- L’Arc De Titus A Rome, By Callow / 28- Les Cascades De Tivoli, Italy, by Salathe / 29- Colonne Trajane A Rome, Italy, by Hurlimann / 30- Le Colisee A Rome, by Himley / 31- Monte-Mario, Italy, by Salathe / 32- Place Du Peuple A Rome, by Martens / 33- Port Ripetta A Rome, by Himley / 34- Ste Marie Majeure A Rome, by Price / 35- Saint-Pierre Et Le Fort Saint-Ange A Rome, by Weber / 36- Temple De Vesta A Rome, by Martens / 37- L’Arsenal A Venise, Italy, by Martens / 38- Pont Du Rialto A Venise, by Martens / 39- Eglise St Marc A venise, by Hurlimann / 40- Vue Prise de la Piazetta a Venise, by Martens / 41- Vue Prise De L’Entre De Grand Canal A Venise, by Martens / 42- Vue Prise Du Clocher St Marc A Venise, by Salathe / 43- Santa Maria Della Spina A Pise, Italy, by Salathe / 44- Le Duomo Et La Tour Penchee A Pise, Italy, by Galow / 45- Fort Neuf a Naples, by Paul Legrand / 46- Le Mole A Naples, Italy, by Salathe / 47- Place Du Grand Duc A Florence, Italy, By Salathe / 48- Temple De Ceres A Pestum, Italy, by Martens / 49- Temple Hypethre De Pestum, Italy, by Salathe / 50- Vassili Blagennoi A Moscou, Russia, by Legrand / 51- Vue De Kremlin A Moscou, Russia, by Hurlimann / 52- Moscou, by P. Legrand / 53- Eglise De La Marine A Stockholm, Sweden, by Hurlimann / 54- Geneve, Suisse, by Bishop & Weber / 55- Beyrouth, Syrie, by Martens / 56- Cimetiere Des Musulmans A Damas, Syrie, by Weber / 57- Jerusalem, Palestine, by Salathe / 58- Nazareth, Syrie, by Salathe / 59- St Jean D’Acre, Syrie, by Salathe / 60- Temple du Soleil A Baalbec, Syrie, by Salathe.