Background
Paul Pretsch was born in 1808 in Vienna, Wien, Austria.
(In November 1856 Paul Pretsch issued through his Patent-P...)
In November 1856 Paul Pretsch issued through his Patent-Photo-Galvano-Graphic Company the first fascicule of a book entitled in an oddly circular manner Photographic Art Treasures, or, Nature and Art Illustrated by Art and Nature. This fascicule, which also immodestly characterized itself as "A New Era in Art" on its printed cover, was the first part of the first book of printed reproductions of photographs, as distinct from books illustrated with pasted-in original photographs. A total of five fascicules were published between November 1856 and July 1857, each with 4 "photo-galvano-graphic" plates.
1856
Paul Pretsch was born in 1808 in Vienna, Wien, Austria.
Paul Pretsch went to work for the Imperial State Printing Office in Vienna in 1842, where he was promoted to manager. During his employment, he applied himself to developing the process of photogalvanography, by which metal printing plates are produced from relief images obtained from exposed coatings of such substances like glue, potassium bichromate, and gelatin. Paul Pretsch edited the weekly Der Erzähler in 1845-1846 and was sent to Paris in 1850 and to London to direct the Austrian printing exhibit at London's Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851.
Paul Pretsch left Vienna in 1854. He obtained patents for the processes he had developed and, in London, formed the Photo-Galvano-Graphic Company to print pictures; its first publication appeared in 1856. Commercially unsuccessful in his venture, he switched to stone lithography and suffered from the harassment of Fox Talbot, who claimed patent infringement.
Paul Pretsch returned to Vienna in 1863 and was reinstated at the Imperial State Printing Office. Because of ill health, he made no further advances with his photogalvanography.