The Moon:

the most beautiful photomechanical process

First edition and an unusually nice copy of this remarkable astronomical work by the Scottish engineer James Nasmyth (1808-1890), one of the first books illustrated with photomechanical processes and famed for its rich Woodburytype depictions of the lunar surface.

Nasmyth made his fortune by perfecting the steam hammer used for manufacturing iron, then retired to Kent and indulged his interest in photography and astronomy. 'He was a very accomplished amateur astronomer, designing and building his own telescopes and using them for systematic observations of the moon and the sun' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Photography was not yet capable of capturing details of the Moon's surface, so Nasmyth made plaster casts based on his observations of lunar features and then photographed them under electric light to achieve crisp shadows. The resulting images were published in The Moon as Woodburytypes, a new photographic reproduction process that had been patented in 1864. 'The Woodburytype process was one of the first successful photomechanical processes fully able to reproduce the delicate halftones of photographs. It was often considered the most perfect, most beautiful photomechanical process and inspired a number of books, magazines, and special edition printings between 1864 and 1910' (Stulik & Kaplan, Woodburytype, p. 4). Nasmyth's co-author, astronomer James Carpenter (1840-1899), worked at the Royal Observatory where he made significant observations of stellar spectra and the underside of the rings of Saturn.

First edition; 4to; halftone frontispiece, 23 plates of which 11 are mounted Woodburytypes, 4 are heliotypes, and 1 is a tinted lithograph, illustrations within the text, single leaf of publisher's ads dated December, 1873, a few small spots but overall contents clean; original blue cloth, titles to spine gilt, illustration blocked in gilt and black to the upper board, brown coated endpapers, top edge gilt, cloth a little rubbed and marked, two tiny wormholes in the lower joint, an excellent copy; 189pp.