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Document number: 5737
Date: 29 Sep 1846
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: JONES Calvert Richard
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA46-102
Last updated: 16th February 2012

Brecon.
Septber 29
1846.

My dear Sir,

I am much obliged by your offer of a certain number of copies of the Yorkshire views to dispose of; but my circle of acquaintance being small, and as I have always recommended persons interested in Photography to your Agents, I should not be able to get rid of any.

I should much prefer doing Negatives at a stipulated price for each but if that does not suit your views I should be glad to know what per centage you propose giving me on a given number of copies disposed of, as it is both troublesome and expensive doing the negatives, and it is possible that “ le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle <1>”: as those which I shd take for my own gratification and instruction are very different than what wd suit the purpose of general sale.

Since I have been here I have done above 40 small views, of which Mr Ward a shopkeeper has I believe requested to have copies for approval, and I have no doubt will take a stock of them. At Swansea also I have done a considerable number, which will probably sell well, and many more remain to be done. As for the Maltese and Italian views I am confidend [sic] they will secure a long and constant approval.

I mention these points to shew you my warmth in the cause, and only regret that I cannot afford the time and expense of doing them for you gratis. I return to Glamorganshire tomorrow, and am impatient to see the copies which you were so kind as to send there: Mr Cowderoy <2> omitted to send me a copy of one of my Dutch subjects (with a Windmill in it) the other one of Dutch vessels under sail is the most extraordinary counterfeit of a sepia drawing from an oil painting that I ever saw, and has been amazingly admired.

I again suggest (if it has not been done) that the name and description of every subject shd be written on it

Yours very truly
Calvert R Jones.

Some of the general Landscapes about here are so beautiful, that I am strongly impressed with the adviseability [sic] of a double sized Camera. <3>

Notes:

1. It is not worth the effort.

2. Benjamin Cowderoy (1812–1904), land agent in Reading; business manager for WHFT; later a politician in Australia.

3. A camera specially constructed to take ‘panoramic joiners’, photographs that could be joined into a panorama. Jones did however not construct this camera until 1853, when he presented it to the Photographic Society of London. See Larry J. Schaaf, Sun Pictures Catalogue Five: The Reverend Calvert R. Jones (New York: Hans P. Kraus, Jr, Inc, 1990), pp. 38, 39.

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