
Articles of China
<p>One of the inventors of photography, William Henry Fox Talbot also produced the first commercially published book to feature photographic illustrations. The Pencil of Nature, issued in six volumes between 1844 and 1846, included Articles of China as plate three of the first volume. Talbot used this image to extol the practical virtues of the new art, claiming that “the whole cabinet of a Virtuoso and collector of old China might be depicted on paper in little more time than it would take him to make a written inventory describing it in the usual way.” Moreover, he argued presciently, if a thief should take the treasures, such an image could provide a new kind of evidentiary record in court.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1843
- Medium
- Salted paper print
- Dimensions
- Image: 13.7 × 18.2 cm (5 7/16 × 7 3/16 in.); Paper: 18.7 × 22.4 cm (7 3/8 × 8 5/8 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- William Henry Fox Talbot
Artist

Photography
William Henry Fox Talbot was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. His work in the 1840s on photomechanical reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure. He was the holder of a controversial patent that affected the early development of commercial photography in Britain. He was also a noted photographer who contributed to the development of photography as an artistic medium. He published The Pencil of Nature (1844–1846), which was illustrated with original salted paper prints from his calotype negatives and made some important early photographs of Oxford, Paris, Reading, and York.
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1848 · Photoglyphic engraving
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Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- William Henry Fox Talbot
- Year
- 1843
- Medium
- Salted paper print
- Dimensions
- Image: 13.7 × 18.2 cm (5 7/16 × 7 3/16 in.); Paper: 18.7 × 22.4 cm (7 3/8 × 8 5/8 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1843-028246
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified





