159. Regent street <1>
Octbr 1. 1845
My dear Sir,
The varnished specimens are all sized, <2> as this is absolutely necessary since I believe the photographic preparation takes all the size out.
Mr Winsor <3> has been out of town and returns today, when he will teach me the method of varnishing, and I will varnish the half[?] of one or two.
Your Cousin <4> is delighted with your idea of his taking a Camera and some paper, he thinks it best to learn himself, and is coming here presently to be taught, I will spare him some sheets of paper, but hope that Henneman <5> will be able to supply me with some instead, as I shall have none left.
He justly thinks it best to provide for large paper as well as small, and luckily had a spare Camera (box) which I have sent for, and Claudet <6> has supplied him with two capital lenses by Davidson, <7> which arrange themselves for all sized paper.
I think you had better desire Henneman to iodize as much paper as he conveniently can for him in the course of the next few days, and to send it to Belgrave square. <8>
Mr Brookes <9> appears pleased with the admiration which the Talbotypes have excited, and some orders he has recieved [sic], which at this dead time of the year, he did not much expect.
Lady Katherine Halkett <10> with whom we have passing [sic] some days, says that she is convinced that there are many persons (such for instance as respectable people in narrow circumstances) who wd be most thankful to have some Talbotypes <11> to sell, even at 10 pr cent profit, and she can name two, at Edinburgh and in London, who she is sure will be glad to do so: I promised to write and ask your opinion on the subject and shall be glad to have it.
You were fortunate in having such capital subjects as the experimental squadron and I shall be most anxious to see a specimen.
We intend leaving town for Veranda <12> on Monday, and I shall then hope to do you some good negatives.
I will consult Mr Winsor whether the varnish can be made less shiny.
yours very truly
Calvert R. Jones.
Notes:
1. London.
2. Sizing, with starch or more commonly gelatine, partially sealed the surface of the paper and controlled absorption.
3. William Winsor (1804–1865), artists’s colour manufacturer & Sacred Harmonic Society member.
4. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), 'Kit', immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
5. Nicolaas Henneman (1813–1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT’s valet, then assistant; photographer.
6. Antoine Françoise Jean Claudet (1797–1867), London; French-born scientist, merchant & photographer, resident in London.
7. 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).
8. 40 Belgrave Square, London home of ‘Kit’.
9. Henry Brooks, publisher, stationer and printseller at 87, New Bond St, London. [See Doc. No: 05950].
10. Katherine Halkett (d. 1848), daughter of the 4th Earl of Selkirk and wife of John Halkett, formerly governor of the Bahamas. She was the mother of Major John Thomas Douglas Halkett, killed in the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade, who was photographed by Jones - see Doc. No: 05488.
11. Although WHFT modestly used the term calotype, Jones and other loyal supporters honoured him by calling these Talbotypes, in parallel with the term Daguerreotype.
12. Jones’ home in Swansea, Wales.