Sir David Brewster, scientist and inventor of the stereoscope : stereoscopic portrait. Edinburgh, 1856-57.

MOFFAT, John (1819-1894)

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Stereoscopic albumen print photograph, each image 74 x 66 mm (arched-top format), on yellow card mount 85 x 173 mm, with blind stamp of 'Lennie / 46 Princes St. / Edinburgh';versowith fully contemporary inscription in ink 'Sir David Brewster', and with the original Scots-Australian owner's name in pencil 'McMillan';the albumen prints have excellent clarity and rich tones, and are in good condition (a few small marks to the left-hand image); the mount has a small water stain at top right corner, and theverso has some silver fishing around the owner's pencilled signature. A rare and significantly early stereoscopic portrait of eminent Scottish physicist Sir David Brewster (1781-1868). Brewster was not only an influential figure in the field of optics, but also one of the most important pioneers of photography, alongside Robert Adamson and David Octavius Hill - whom he first introduced - and William HenryFox Talbot, another close associate.Brewster invented the kaleidoscope (1815) and the stereoscope (1849). It is not an overstatement to suggest that this stereoscopicportrait of Brewster could be considered something of a holy grail for collectors of stereoscopic photography. The photograph was taken by fellow pioneer Scottish photographer John Moffat (1819-1894) in his studio at 19 Princes Street, Edinburgh, in 1856-57, and was sold by Moffat's neighbour, the optician John Lennie. Lennie's business premises were at 46 Princes Street from 1856 - the same year that he became a founding member of the Photographic Society of Scotland, with none other than Sir David Brewster as its first president. A hand-coloured example of another stereoscopic portrait of Brewster taken by John Moffatt - which would appear to have been taken at the same sitting - forms part ofThe Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy Collection. The reason we believe the present stereocard dates to around 1856 or 1857 is based on the fact that it was sourced with a group of stereoscopic photographs - clearly all by the same photographer and taken around the same time - which included a portrait of Hungarian revolutionary, statesman and orator Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894), taken in Edinburgh by John Moffat during Kossuth's lecture tour of Scotland in 1856-57. These stereoviews were sourced in Melbourne, and were originallyacquired by a Scots-Australian named McMillan; all of the backs bear his discreet ownership signature in pencil. We believe this is likely to be Dr. Thomas Law McMillan, who received his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1850 and then made his way to Australia via America, working his passage as a ship's surgeon. He arrived in Port Phillip in February 1853 during the early phase of the first Australian gold rush. After a period seeking his fortune on the Central Victorian goldfields, McMillan returned to medicine and worked as a doctor in Geelong and Melbourne, where he becamePresident of the Medical Society of Victoria. These facts provide a plausible explanation as to why the subjects of the stereoscopic photographs McMillan acquired - presumably on a visit home to Edinburgh in the second half of the 1850s - are, in the main, prominent Scottish figures in the fields of medicine and science (while Lajos Kossuth, of course, was a hero to every Scot with nationalist leanings). Furthermore, the Australian stereoscopic views from the same collection, similarly inscribed McMillan,date from the early 1860s and are mostly of Central Victorian goldfields subjects, a fact which also neatly dovetails with the Thomas Law McMillan hypothesis. Seller Inventory # 36423

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Title: Sir David Brewster, scientist and inventor ...