Veranda. Swansea.
March. 10. 1845.
My dear Sir,
I have received the Pencil of Nature No. 2. <1> and cannot forbear expressing my admiration of it; as it appears to exhibit a decided improvement in the paper, even over what you have before effected, the sharpness, evenness and total absence of all stains is to me perfectly wonderful; and it is difficult to imagine the advances which Lady C. Talbot <2> mentioned that you had still farther made.
The weather has been of late so cold and dark that I have hardly attempted anything Photographical but anxiously expect the information on your improved methods for which I was a petitioner (shd it not be a secret) whenever your valuable time affords an opportunity.
J. D. Llewelyn <3> has been trying some paper which Whatman recommends especially for the Talbotype, <4> do you advise the use of it?
Lord Adare<5> tells me that he met at Parsonstown a gentleman who had made a positive paper, who
I trust that by the discoveries of M. Claudets <6> relation we shall be able now to get large Lenses much cheaper
Believe me, yours sincerely obliged
Calvert R. Jones Jnr
Notes:
1. WHFT, The Pencil of Nature (London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, June 1844–April 1846 [issued in six fascicles]).
2. Lady Charlotte Talbot, née Butler (1809–1846), wife of CRM Talbot.
3. John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810–1882), Welsh photographer, JP & High Sheriff.
4. Although WHFT modestly used the term calotype, Jones and other loyal supporters honoured him by calling these Talbotypes, in parallel with the term Daguerreotype.
5. Edwin Richard Windham Wyndham-Quin, Viscount Adare, 3rd Earl Dunraven (1812–1871), Welsh MP & spiritualist. He was referring to Dr Thomas Woods (1815–1905), Irish physician, photographer, inventor & friend of Lord Rosse - see Doc. No: 09632.
6. Antoine Françoise Jean Claudet (1797–1867), London; French-born scientist, merchant & photographer, resident in London.