The ochre-coloured image of a leaf printed on light-sensitive paper may be the world’s first photograph, dating back more than 200 years, experts claimed yesterday.

The image had been attributed to William Henry Fox Talbot, the father of modern photography, but may actually have been created 30 years before he achieved his world-changing breakthrough in 1835.

The image had been expected to fetch £50,000 to £70,000 at auction in New York, but has now been withdrawn from the sale by Sotheby’s for further investigation. If it is confirmed as the world’s earliest photograph, Sotheby’s say that “the sky’s the limit” as far as value is concerned.

The image, correctly known as a photogenic drawing, was created by laying a leaf on a sheet of light-sensi-tive paper, then exposing it to the Sun. The result is a detailed lifesize image in which every vein of the leaf can be seen.

The photograph was last sold at Sotheby’s in 1984 when it was attributed to Fox Talbot, who lived at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire and was the first person to create a photographic negative that could be reproduced. His early experiments also included photogenic drawings as he investigated ways to “fix” the image on light-sensitive paper and prevent it continuing to darken so much that it could not be seen.

The leaf was originally contained in an album belonging to Sir Henry Bright, a 19th-century Bristol MP and patron of the arts and sciences.

When the image came up for sale again Sotheby’s asked Larry Schaaf, an authority on Fox Talbot, to inspect it. He has now said it is not the work of Fox Talbot and may be even older.

Dr Schaaf believes a tantalising initial “W” means it may be the work of Thomas Wedgwood, the son of Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the china dynasty.

Wedgwood experimented with photography in the 1790s while living in Bristol but none of his work was thought to have survived. Although he managed to make images using light-sensitive paper, the secret of fixing the image was believed to have eluded him.

If Dr Schaaf is correct the history of photography will have to be rewritten. He said: “I got back to them and said, ‘Well, the first thing I would say is that this was not made by Talbot’. That was not what they were expecting to hear, to say the least.

“This image of a leaf is extraordinary. It arrests our attention as much today as it had done for at least a century and a half, and just possibly for more than two centuries. Someone could obviously come along and say that these images are all in fact Talbots, but they would be wrong.”

Denise Bethel, the photographic expert at Sotheby’s in New York, said: ”The possibility of a definitive conclusion regarding this early photogenic drawing is very exciting.

“We were expecting £50,000 to £70,000 for it. If it could be authenticated as the world’s oldest photograph, the sky could be the limit.”

Sotheby’s was auctioning the leaf picture as part of the Quillan collection, a collection of exhibits from the earliest days of photography to the present. It was already expected to fetch more than some of the best-known images in the collection, such as Richard Avedon’s 1957 portrait of Marilyn Monroe, estimated at £35,000 to £50,000.

If the leaf is confirmed as the world’s earliest photograph it will open up new research. Four other images from the same album sold in 1984 also bear the initial “W”. Two are now privately owned, one is in the J. Paul Getty Museum and one is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Both museums are also planning a number of further tests to determine the age of the paper and to identify the chemical make-up of any substances used on it.

Pioneer

— Thomas Wedgwood was born in Staffordshire, in 1771, the son of the potter Josiah Wedgwood

— While his father experimented with chemicals to create glazes and colours for ceramics, Thomas explored their uses for fixing an image photographically

— His experiments began in 1795, using light-sensitive materials to capture images on glass

— An account was published in 1802

Sources: Historiccamera.com ; www.intute.ac.uk ; antiques-collectibles-auction-news.com

Times Recommends

• The real-life adventures of Tintin the spy
• Our universities face a radical upheaval
• Doctor Who