Lot 26: DE LA RUE, WARREN. 1815-1889, attributed.

2 views of the Moon, from south-east England, c.1855, albumen prints mounted, 6 x 6½ inches (155 x 165 mm) and 4½ x 5½ inches (115 x 140 mm), framed together.

AMONGST THE EARLIEST PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE MOON. De la Rue was inspired by his friend James Nasmyth (1808-1890) to build a reflecting telescope in 1850. He began to make drawings of celestial objects, but upon seeing George P. Bond's daguerreotype of the Moon at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, de la Rue turned his attention to photography. Using the new wet collodion process, he was by 1854 producing well-defined photographs of the Moon (Hannavy vol 1 pp 394-395). De la Rue's images were widely reproduced: see lot 30 for a published set in carte-de-visite format.