?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 100 - $ 200
FINGERPRINT TRAILBLAZER AND SON OF ASTRONOMER HERSCHEL, WILLIAM JAMES. Vellum Document Signed, "W.J. Herschel," transferring the mortgage of the Hurst Estate in the Parish of Potterne in the County of Wiltshire. Additionally signed by his mother, Margaret Brodie Herschel, and brother, John Herschel the Younger. Signed at lower right and left of terminal page. 4 pages, 19x27 1/2 inches, written on three leaves bound together with ribbon at lower edge; deep folds, minor scattered soiling. Np, 14 January 1883
Beginning in 1858, Herschel employed finger prints on contracts in lieu of signatures, initially not as a means of combating forgery, but the usefulness for this purpose was soon apparent. He developed the technique of fingerprint identification while working as a British officer in the Indian Civil Service through the 1860s, and in 1877, Herschel requested that fingerprints be adopted to identify inmates at a Bengali prison. Although the request was denied, the recognition of the importance of fingerprints to security had begun to spread.
