A rare 19th-century experimental multi-exposure image of men in a vaulted room.

[Attributed to Hildegarde or Eugen BECHER (photographers)]

A rare 19th-century experimental multi-exposure image of men in a vaulted room. [N.p.:] mount dated '1898'. Sepia toned photograph (4 1/4 x 3 1/4in; 107 x 83mm) on an early black wove paper mount. (Old horizontal crease). Provenance: Hildegarde Becher (removed from an album assembled by Hildegarde [see lot 92]).

A very early example of a multi-exposure image: Muybridge on Acid. A work which anticipates the work of Marcel Duchamp by at least a decade and would have been appreciated by Man Ray and the Surrealists. It is actually not clear if this was a deliberate experiment or a mistake which was recognized as being worth saving - it was mounted in the Becher album, but it was folded in half at one point before being 'rescued' and preserved.