Veranda
July 21
1846.
My dear Sir,
I have been in hopes of hearing how you liked the consignment of negatives which I sent to Henneman. <1> he [sic] expressed himself as very much pleased with some of them but has not yet sent me copies. He said that he doubted whether they wd bear waxing meaning I suppose that they were not done enough this however is a fault which I think he will not find with many of those which remain as I continued to follow your advice of overdoing them, and am much persuaded (especially by the two last I did this week) that it is the best way.
I heard from Mr Bridges <2> last week he had been ill of a Brain fever, but was pretty well recovered; he begged me to ask your advice respecting positive copies, in all of which he finds great difficulty in getting his lights white enough: though he follows the directions he copied from me.
I have tried to make some copies lately, and find exactly the same difficulty, and still more; for though I am exact in acting on the instructions, I find that the whole picture invariably comes out of the Copying frame with a faded appearance, i.e. the shadows are too light, and the lights too dark: which cannot arise from its being exposed too short or too long a time in the Sun, as in the former case the shadows only wd be too light, and in the latter too dark; I enclose a specimen done from a very beautiful negative to shew you.
I fear therefore that I must have made some mistake in copying Henneman’s directions which were as follows.
1st Take 10 ounces of salt, and dissolve it in 20 ounces water; take 3 ounces of this solution to 10 do of water dip the paper, and in 2 or 3 seconds pull it out (unless the paper is greasy, when you may leave it a little longer) take it out and lay it on a clean piece of board: wipe it well with a soft cloth 1st on one side, then on the other with [illegible] soft cloth. Let it perfectly dry, and then take 50 grains nitrate of silver to 1 ounce dist: wat: then supposing you have 12 ounces of this mixture take 5 drachms of ammonia, 2 or 3 of nitric acid, and 8 of dist: wat: with this go over the salted paper very evenly with a camels hair brush and let it quite dry, then use in the copying Frame.
Wd you have the kindness to let Henneman see the above and ask him to tell me if it is correct, as I cannot account for my invariable failure, I tried 2 washes of nit: silv: at Mr Bridges suggestion, but did not find that my pictures were stronger
As I want to answer Mr Bridges letter soon, I shall be much obliged if you will send me a line.
Mr Bridges says that the Malta Talbotypes <3> were very much admired there, he had lent them to Muir <4> the principal Bookseller there who laid them on his table and did not doubt that they wd sell admirably Mr B. wished for more of them for that purpose, and prospectuses, he also said that when he went to other places he wd make them public, and enquire about their probable sale.
yours very truly
Calvert R Jones.
Notes:
1. Nicolaas Henneman (1813–1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT’s valet, then assistant; photographer.
2. Rev George Wilson Bridges (1788–1863), photographer & traveller.
3. Although WHFT modestly used the term calotype, Jones and other loyal supporters honoured him by calling these Talbotypes, in parallel with the term Daguerreotype.
4. Probably George Muir Jnr. (1813–1868), bookseller in Malta.