Fox Talbot photos sell for record breaking $2 million at Sotheby's birthday sale

Sotheby's
Brunel's ship the SS Great Britain at low tide - shot by Fox Talbot between 1843-45 (Image credit: Sotheby's)

Sothebys set the highest ever price recorded for Victorian photography in its recent auction to celebrate its photographic department's 50th birthday. The collection of images by British photographer William Henry Fox Talbot raised $1,956,000, four times its pre-sale estimate.

The collection contained almost 200 items, including 71 photographs, had been gifted to Fox Talbot's sister Henrietta in the 1840s.  It comprises of some of the earliest images ever taken by the man who invented the first negative process, and who was only just pipped by Frenchman Louis Daguerre to inventing photography itself. 

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Chris George

Chris George has worked on Digital Camera World since its launch in 2017. He has been writing about photography, mobile phones, video making and technology for over 30 years – and has edited numerous magazines including PhotoPlus, N-Photo, Digital Camera, Video Camera, and Professional Photography. 

His first serious camera was the iconic Olympus OM10, with which he won the title of Young Photographer of the Year - long before the advent of autofocus and memory cards. Today he uses a Nikon D800, a Fujifilm X-T1, a Sony A7, and his iPhone 15 Pro Max.

He has written about technology for countless publications and websites including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, Dorling Kindersley, What Cellphone, T3 and Techradar.