20 Mornington Road
N. W.
Novr 26. 1858
Dear Sir
I wrote you a very hurried note yesterday – I now write again in answer to your favours of the 24th & 25th.
Respecting the 100 proofs on India Paper which Mr Brooker printed – that number was printed from each plate and it was at first the intention of Messrs Petter & Galpin to have sold them to subscribers to the "News" at a small price so as to have some return for the outlay of printing &c. As however on application you did not approve of this course they kept them back – and I have been using them to distribute, in sets, to the Press – There are several however left unused and I need not say that they are quite at your service should you wish to have any of them in fact I will <at?> the next opportunity select some of the best India proofs of each and send them to you.
The parcel of photoglyphs arrived here quite safely yesterday evening and I have been examining them this morning. they <sic> are very beautiful and I am very much obliged to you for thus letting me see the progress of this wonderful art. Of the two pictures of Toledo I prefer No 2. there being more of halftone about it, neither of them however are in my opinion as perfect as others I have. The Statue of Charles IV is a very nice picture altho wanting a little in half tone. I think Notre Dame & St Sulpice have rather the opposite fault as they are all half tone and therefore as pictures look faint & poor. By far the best specimens of the art however which I have ever seen are the Schools – Oxford, and Munich, Bavaria. They are really wonderful both for the perfection of their half tone and the vigour and picturesque appearance of the whole – These two are much better than I could have expected you would have obtained in so short a time and quite eclipse the rest with the exception perhaps of an early print of the Bell and the Gate at Valladolid. Altogether, apart from the pleasure of having such beautiful pictures, I am very pleased to see that you are so perfectly successful in overcoming the difficulty of half-tint. I shall have the Schools & Munich framed and hung up as specimens of what Photoglyphy can do – Still I have no doubt that they will ere long be eclipsed by others as there is as much promise of future
<at top of sheet 2> 2nd sheet. 26 / 11 / 58.
improvement as there is of present beauty.
With respect to Pretschs pictures I will consult with Messrs P & G about it and communicate with you further I was not aware that you had really commenced Legal proceedings against them, nor did I think you looked upon the process as so decided an infringement of your patent, although rumours of your disapproval had reached me. Of course now I know how you view the affair I will not take any steps without your full sanction.
There is not the least difficulty in transferring any copper or steel engraving to stone and I think your pictures would easily bear the transfer – of course the extreme minutiæ would be lost – I will consult with Petter & Galpin further on this subject.
If you wish it Messrs Petter & Galpin will at once have a reduced copy of the "News" taken and send the positive to you. they <sic> would prefer however first to issue the large engraving of a view or similar thing as that is expected – after then they will not object to the expense of issuing the reduced sheet of the "News" if you are still of opinion that it would increase the public opinion of this new art. Will you please select a page of the "News".
If you like I can lend you copying frames of any size but the difficulty would be to get them down to you
Believe me very truly yours
William Crookes.
H. F. Talbot Esqre