Dear Sir,
Mr Adamson <1>, of whom I have previously written to you, <2> goes tomorrow to Edinr to prosecute, as a Profession, the Calotype. He has made brilliant progress, and done some of the very finest things both in Portrait and Landscape. His Risk & outlay are considerable; & he is therefore anxious to make a good beginning.<3>
For this purpose he is desirous that you would allow him to state that he practices the art with your concurrence and countenance. His success in Edinr must add to the value & popularity of the art in England and bring it into more general notice.
You will scarcely believe how little the art is known in Scotland. Here it is so general that several of our Students in Theology and Philosophy are practising it for their amusement.
Davidson <4> makes beautiful Cameras, & very cheap, so that nobody grudges the price of them.
My Son Capt. Brewster <5> of the 76th has gone with his Regt. to Plymouth; & he has been told that it is not lawful for him to practise the art in England. <6> Much as I have studied the Patent Laws I do not know whether or not a Patent prevents an Amateur from using the protected process. I therefore promised to write to you to ask permission for him to Calotype for his amusement.
Believe me to be Ever Most Faithfy yrs
D Brewster
St Leonards College
St Andrews
May 9th 1843
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Notes:
1. Robert Adamson (1821–1848). His professional partnership with the painter David Octavius Hill (1802–1870), Scottish painter & photographer, which began in May 1843 because of Hill’s desire to record the momentous Disruption of the Church of Scotland, established – at the dawn of photography – the art of photographic portraiture at the highest level. It was Brewster who introduced the photographer to the painter [see Doc. No: 04839]. See Sara Stevenson, David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 1981), and The Personal Art of David Octavius Hill ( New Haven & London: Yale UP, 2002).
2. See Doc. No: 04573.
3. This was to become the first calotype photographic operation in Scotland.
4. Thomas Davidson (1798–1878), scientific instrument maker and Daguerreotypist. He was the author of The Art of Daguerreotyping, with the Improvements of the Process and Apparatus (Edinburgh, 1841). For biographical details, see John Nicol, ‘Reminiscences of Thomas Davidson, a Weaver Lad’, British Journal of Photography, 15 August 1879, pp. 390–91 and 22 August 1879, pp. 399–401.
5. WHFT’s patent ran only in England, not in Scotland [so Adamson did not have to pay a fee to practise the calotype professionally]. It affected only those intending to make money from using the process.
6. Captain Henry Brewster. See Graham Smith, ‘A Group of Early Scottish Calotypes’, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, v. 46, n. 1, Autumn 1984, pp. 81–94.