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Document number: 4281
Date: Mon 14 Jun 1841
Harold White: 14 Jun 1841
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: TALBOT Constance, née Mundy
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA41-38
Last updated: 30th July 2010

Monday

My dear Henry,

I have made these three pictures <1> myself – and Porter <2> has fixed <3> them – Shall you want any more? – I should have taken your friend for Sir Walter Scott <4> had he been living. – don’t you see a strong likeness? – These portraits took 35 & 40 minutes with an almost unclouded sun – and I do not think that Porter’s paper seems so sensitive as that which I have been used to. – The 3d copy the faintest remained above an hour because the sky became unfortunately overcast. –

I am so sorry you have not been well. – it has been unpleasant weather, but today is very fine indeed, & we are going presently to enjoy ourselves in the hayfield. – I think you must afford yourself some sea-air in the Autumn – it will be as good for you as for Ela. <5>–

I had a visit from Mrs M Frampton <6> on Friday & Mrs Arnold.<7> – The former desired her warmest thanks to you for your very kind exertions for the furtherance of her wishes. <8> –

We are all well –

Your affectionate
Constance. –

Why did you fold your picture? <9> – You observe the line has copied itself –

Notes:

1. Photogenic drawings prints from calotype negatives - see Doc. No: 04278.

2. Charles Porter (b. 1828), a servant at Lacock Abbey. He was the frequent subject of photographs and occasionally also photographic assistant.

3. At this point, 'fixing' could mean using WHFT's original processes employing salt, bromide or iodide as what we would now call stabilisers, or Sir John Herschel's application of hypo, which he and WHFT called a 'washing out' process, but what we now know as fixer. For more on these etymological niceties, see Larry J. Schaaf, Out of the Shadows: Herschel, Talbot & the Invention of Photography (London: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 54-60.

4. Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), writer. Without further information, it is not possible to identify WHFT's friend. His only portraits reliably dated to 1841 are of Nicolaas Henneman. It is also possible that the negative was by Henry Collen, who had taken out a calotype license from WHFT and was sending examples to him at this time. A Collen negative portrait of a man, formerly in the Lacock Abbey collection and now in a private collection, is dated 6 June 1841 - Schaaf 3498.

5. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.

6. Mary Frampton (1773–1846), botanist & author.

8. See Doc. No: 04244.

9. Folding the negative for posting was a common practice, not only with WHFT. See ‘Temple of Wingless Victory, Lately Restored’, by Rev George Wilson Bridges (1788–1863), photographer & traveller, reproduced in Larry J. Schaaf, Sun Pictures Catalogue Four: The Harold White Collection of Historical Photographs from the Circle of Talbot (New York: Hans P. Kraus, Jr., 1987), p. 11.