This lot of 10 scarce, very early woodburytype prints depict the beautiful subtleties and relief on the surface of the moon. Patented by English inventor and photographer Walter Bentley Woodbury in 1864, the woodburytype photomechanical reproduction process became widely used in fine book illustration in the latter part of the 19th century as the only commercially successful method of replicating the details of a photograph.

A) Plate XIX. Full Moon and Glass Globe. Photographed by De la Rue, printed by Woodbury.
B) Plate XII. Theophilus Cyrillus & Catharina. Photographed by James Nasmyth, printed by Woodbury.
C) Plate XIII. Ptolemy Alphons Arzachael &c. Photographed by James Nasmyth, printed by Woodbury.
D) Plate XX. Overlapping Craters. Photographed by James Nasmyth, printed by Woodbury.
E) Plate XXIII. Group of Lunar Mountains. Ideal Lunar Landscape. Photographed by James Nasmyth, printed by Woodbury.
F) Plate IX. The Lunar Apennines, Archemedes, &c. Photographed by James Nasmyth, printed by Brooks, Day & Son, and published by John Murray.
G) Plate X. Aristotle & Eudoxus. Photographed by James Nasmyth, printed by Brooks, Day & Son, and published by John Murray.
H) Plate XI. Triesnecker. Photographed by James Nasmyth, printed by Brooks, Day & Son, and published by John Murray.
I) Plate XVII. Wargentin. Photographed by James Nasmyth, printed by Brooks, Day & Son, and published by John Murray.
J) Plate XVIII. Aristarchus & Herodotus. Photographed by James Nasmyth, printed by Brooks, Day & Son, and published by John Murray.

References:

Condition: B+

Prints are pasted on heavy paper, as issued, with marginal soiling. Plate XXIII is missing far upper-left corner of image.