Third Census of H. Fox Talbot's The Pencil of Nature

Abstract

This article presents the third census of H. Fox Talbot's The Pencil of Nature (1844–46), the first commercially published photographically illustrated book. The first census was published in the Introductory Volume to the 1989 Anniversary Facsimile of The Pencil of Nature, the first complete examination of this seminal work. The publication of that census provoked the discovery of a number of new copies, and an updated census was published in History of Photography in 1993. Since that time, additional copies have emerged and quite a few changes of ownership have come about, leading to this third census. Since the original copies of The Pencil of Nature were assembled by hand, variations occurred, and defects in the original binding and later owners’ actions led to bibliographic confusion about what constituted an authentic copy. This question is considered in a brief bibliographical summary and analysis. Potential copies and known missing copies are enumerated in the hopes of promoting their discovery in future.