Does anyone know if anyone other than Niepce created photographic Heliographs? How many are there out there other than the 1826 'first photograph' ? I have only seen examples of etching reproductions.
thanks,
WIT
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Dear All: I am answering my own post here just in case anyone else has even the slightest interest. I have just managed to acquire The History of Photography 1686-1914 by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim (highly recommended) and it has a good chapter on Heliography. As you may know it was Gernsheim who tracked down (at Kew in 1952) View from the Window at Le Gras. Anyway in the chapter it states that this is the only surviving Heliograph that has a view from nature. It is almost certain however Niepce created others as on 20 August 1828 he wrote to Lemaitre " I have now entirely given up copying engravings, and restrict myself to views taken with the perfected camera obscura of Wollaston....... My sole object having become to copy nature with the greatest fidelity, it is to that which I attach myself exclusively, for only when I have successded with this, can I seriously occupy myself with the different modes of application of which my discovery is capable.". It is unlikely that he shared his technique with anyone other than Daguerre, he had a chance whilst in England to formally announce to the Royal Society but he was not willing to disclose the secret of his process so the RS could not take cognisance of it.
WIT