Experimental steel plate etching of grass, likely 'Deschampsia cespitosa'

Earliest etchings without ground (before 1852). Experimental steel plate - grass stalk, likely 'Deschampsia cespitosa', 4" x 2 3/4", with proof.

Talbot was the English inventor of photography. Spurred on by frustration at his inability to draw accurately, he saw the potential for using new photographic processes to capture botanical detail. He developed a technique called photoglyphic engraving, intended to overcome the fact that some of his early experimental photographs faded. Photoglyphs used sensitised gelatine to fix the image to the surface of a metal plate that could then be etched, inked and printed onto paper. He tried using a range of English flora.