Two specimens of fern leaf

A photogenic drawing of two plant specimens, the leaves placed on sensitized paper and exposed to sunlight. Inscribed above in ink: "An early attempt at Photography from Norwich." Contact print on sensitized paper.

Apparently, an early use of the process developed by William Henry Fox Talbot FRS (1800-1877). The naturalist and geologist Caleb Burrell Rose (1790-1872) in whose papers this image is preserved, practised as a surgeon in Swaffham, Norfolk, 1816-c.1859.