Feb 28, 2013 - Sale 2305

Sale 2305 - Lot 199

Price Realized: $ 1,560
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 2,000
NASMYTH, JAMES; and CARPENTER, JAMES. The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite. 25 plates on 24 leaves, comprising 12 mounted Woodburytypes of lunar models, 6 photogravures, 4 autotypes, 2 lithographs, and one chromolithograph; 46 text illustrations. Half-title; ad leaf at end dated December 1873. 4to, original gilt-pictorial cloth with depiction of lunar eruption on front cover, spine darkened, ends worn, cover corners frayed; contents; Woodburytype plate mounts slightly warped, with mostly minor foxing in blank margins. London: John Murray, 1874

Additional Details

first edition. Nasmyth and Carpenter believed that the external features of the moon were formed by volcanic activity. For images of the lunar surface they resorted to photographing deceptively realistic plaster models because of the technical limitations of astronomical photography at the time. DSB IX, 616; Parr & Badger, The Photobook I, pages 38 and 51; The Truthful Lens 125.