The plates for The Pencil of Nature were selected to demonstrate potential applications of the new art of photography. This plate was taken from the lithograph by Johann Strixner in Les Oeuvres Lithographiques after the original sketch by Pier Francesco Mola in Munich. It represents one of the earliest examples of the use of photography as a method of producing multiple facsimile copies of other works of art for publication. In his accompanying text Talbot wrote...Facsimiles can be made from original sketches of the old masters, and thus they may be preserved from loss.