Drenching Episode, Plate 408 from Animal Locomotion First Edition - Eadweard Muybridge - Bauman Rare Books

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Drenching Episode, Plate 408 from Animal Locomotion

Eadweard MUYBRIDGE

Item#: 44349 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Drenching Episode, Plate 408 from Animal Locomotion

“HIS STUDIES RADICALLY ALTERED THE UNDERSTANDING OF MOTION”: ORIGINAL MUYBRIDGE LARGE FOLIO PLATE OF A WATER-BUCKET DRENCHING

MUYBRIDGE, Eadweard. “Drenching Episode,” Plate 408 from Animal Locomotion. [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1887]. Single large folio sheet, measuring 23-1/2 by 18 inches (colotype image measures 16-1/4 by 7-1/2 inches, apart from letterpress); mat size: 27-1/4 by 20-3/4 inches.

Original “Author’s Edition” collotype of multiple sequential studies of two nude female models, one drenching the other, from the most significant photographic work on the natural motion of animals.

To settle a $25,000 bet that a galloping horse leaves the ground completely, former governor of California Leland Stanford hired photographer Eadweard Muybridge to determine whether or not his claim might be true. Muybridge designed an elaborate photographic system that combined batteries of multiple cameras with rapid shutter mechanisms, in an effort to capture the horse with all four feet off the ground. Stanford won his bet. These were the first successful sequential photographs of rapidly moving objects, and Muybridge would devote the rest of his life to similar photographic studies— with the help of painter Thomas Eakins, who successfully persuaded the University of Pennsylvania to subsidize Muybridge’s further experimentations. Between 1884 and 1886 Muybridge and his team produced 20,000 negatives of various animals and humans in motion, which were then arranged on 781 plates and printed in 1887 as Animal Locomotion. This magnificent sequence of a model getting drenched is plate number 408, with penciled caption in bottom corner, “Model No. 1, widow pouring water, [Model No.] 8, girl.” See Frizot, 244ff.; Grolier, Truthful Lens 123.

Professionally cleaned, archivally matted. A historic piece. Scarce.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
Association Copy copy that belonged to someone connected with the author or the contents of a book.
Boards Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book.
Book-Plate Label, generally affixed to the front pastedown, identifying a book’s owner.
Broadside Sheet printed on one side, typically for public display, usually larger than folio size (a folio being a broadside-size sheet printed on both sides and folded once, to make four pages).
Calf Binding material made from cowhide—versatile, durable, usually tan or brown in color, of smooth texture with no or little apparent grain. Readily marbled (“tree calf”), mottled, diced, colored, polished, tooled in gilt or blind, even scented (known as “russia”). Reverse calf, with a distinctive suede-like texture, is occasionally used.
Chromolithograph Lithograph printed in colors, typically three or more.
Collation Process by which the contents of a book are inspected for completeness, checking against internal evidence, the table of contents and/or plate list, and reference works. Also a shorthand bibliographical description of a book’s composition by its leaves and signatures, rather than its pages. A-C, for example, would indicate a quarto volume composed of three signatures or gatherings of eight pages each for a total of 24 pages.
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Doublure Pastedowns made not of paper but of leather, for decorative purposes.
Duodecimo (12MO) Smaller than an octavo, typically less than six inches tall; smaller formats, such as 24mo and 32mo, are uncommon.
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Errata List of mistakes and corrections noted after printing, often compiled on a separate sheet or slip and inserted into the text block.
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Folio Book composed of sheets that are folded once and printed on both sides, making two leaves and four pages. Typically above 14 inches tall. Oblong folios are produced the same way but bound at the short edge, producing a book typically more than 14 inches deep.
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Japanese Vellum Expensive handmade paper often used in deluxe editions.
Lithograph Illustration produced by transferring an image drawn on a carefully prepared stone to paper. The process allowed illustrations to more closely resemble the original drawings, paintings or sketches, as it gave the lithographer a freedom of line impossible to achieve in earlier intaglio and relief processes. It does not require the same sort of pressure as an engraving to transfer the image, but still has to be printed on separate stock from the text
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Plate Full-page illustration printed separately from but bound with the text.
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Wood-Engraving Engraving made with the graver or burin on the cross-section of a piece of boxwood; the harder wood and finer tools allow for more delicate, finely detailed images, while the block can still be set in the page alongside text and printed on the same stock as the text. While much older, wood engravings enjoyed an important renaissance in the late eighteenth century through Thomas Bewick and continued in popularity thorugh the nineteenth century.
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