[draft]

Nov 16 / 51

Cpm^l I want y^r advice under rather perplex^g circ^s (I will call for an ans^r tomorrow Monday) - The Ex^ve C^tee have gone so far as to sign a contract with a party now to make 10,000 or more cop phot^c copies in France, amt thus defraud^g my licensees to that am^t. The party is now in Town but leaves for France on Wed^ny. Can I in y^e meanwhile obtain an exparte injⁿ ag^st him, to restrain him from

If I give him notice, he will be off. The Ex^ve C^tee have I believe given him a guarantee of indemnity ag^st any action I may bring - They spend the public money in that way. That is the way in w^ch British inventions are encouraged,

Yours truly

[expanded version:]

November 16, 1851

Carpmael

I want your advice under rather perplexing circumstances (I will call for an answer tomorrow Monday) - The Executive Committee ^<1> have gone so far as to sign a contract with a party ^<2> now to make 10,000 or more cop photographic copies in France, amounting thus defrauding my licensees to that amount. The party is now in Town but leaves for France on Wednesday. Can I in the meanwhile obtain an exparte inunction against him, to restrain him from

If I give him notice, he will be off. The Executive Committee have I believe given him a guarantee of indemnity against any action I may bring - They spend the public money in that way. That is the way in which British inventions are encouraged,

Yours truly

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Notes:

1. Of the Great Exhibition of 1851.

2. Robert Jefferson Bingham (1825-1870), English born author and photographer, mostly active in France, who was the premier reproduction photographer of his day. These were for Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851: Reports by the Juries. Four volumes, illustrated by original photographic prints from negatives by Hugh Owen and Claude Marie Ferrier. In the copies given to WHFT, a dedicatory sheet was inserted (most likely printed up by him): 'This Work, on the Results of the Great Exhibition of 1851, Illustrated with Photographic Plates, being One of Fifteen Copies Given by the Royal Commissioners to H.F. Talbot, Esq. of Lacock Abbey, as The Inventor of this Branch of the Photographic Art, was by him presented to _____'. This publication caused WHFT considerable consternation at the time, for he felt that the Commissioners had stealthily and unfairly taken the job of printing the plates away from Nicolaas Henneman. For a summary of this complex situation, see Nancy B Keeler, 'Illustrating the "Reports by the Juries" of the Great Exhibition of 1851; Talbot, Henneman, and Their Failed Commission,' History of Photography, v. 6 no. 3, July 1982, pp. 257-272.