Sir Robert Christison, toxicologist and physician : stereoscopic portrait. Edinburgh, 1856-57.

A$600 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Stereoscopic albumen print photograph, each image 75 x 63 mm (arched-top format), on yellow card mount 83 x 173 mm, with blind stamp of Lennie / 46 Princes St. / Edinburgh ; verso with facsimile signature of the sitter R. Christison , and with the original Scots-Australian owner s name in pencil McMillan ; the albumen prints are both crisp images with excellent tonal range, in very good condition; the mount is excellent ( verso with some insignificant pale foxing). Rare early photographic portrait of the eminent Scottish physician, Sir Robert Christison. Sir Robert Christison, 1st Baronet, FRSE FRCSE FRCPE (1797-1882), was a Scottish toxicologist and physician who served as president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (1838-40 and 1846-8) and as president of the British Medical Association (1875). He was the first person to describe renal anaemia. The photograph was taken by 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, whose business premises were at 46 Princes Street from 1856. (John Lennie joined the Photographic Society of Scotland in 1856 and joined Edinburgh Photographic Society in 1861). The only other example of this stereoscopic photograph we have been able to trace online is held in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG x45706), where it is attributed to John Moffat and dated to around 1860. However, we believe the photograph is

• Binding: Hardcover

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