Photograph (Woodburytype) of John Mercer, 1886 (Originally Taken 1850s)

Woodburytype mounted on card and bound as frontispiece of Edward A. Parnell's book 'The Life and Labours of John Mercer ...' (published 1886), though in fact it is bound before the half-title. Portrait of John Mercer, seated three-quarter length, turned to left. Mercer died in 1866, so the original photograph was probably a collodion glass negative taken in the 1850s; the woodburytype was probably made from it directly, as the detail in the head is very fine. An earlier print of the same photograph, on textile, is 12670; it shows the original photograph untrimmed, but has far less detail.

John Mercer (1791-1866), chemist and textile printer, was the inventor of the mercerisation process of calico printing, and also himself an early photographic experimenter.