This small collection of microphotographs was found in the case of a French microscope, and were made by John Benjamin Dancer (1812-1887), the Manchester-based instrument maker and pioneer of the technique. It was not long after the invention of modern photographic technique that Dancer attached a 1.5-inch focal length microscopic lens to a camera, in order to magnify the image.
By the 1850s Dancer had developed a method of producing microphotographs containing a full picture occupying only 1/16th of an inch. Microphotographs were made of portraits, monuments, and many popular subject. A list (view image) published around 1870 demonstrates the development of Dancer's range of subjects, which in turn reflects the prevailing interests of his customers, for example: