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Document number: 7726
Date: 02 Nov 1858
Postscript: Wed
Recipient: LLEWELYN Emma Thomasina, née Talbot
Author: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Collection: Welsh Industrial Museum Cardiff
Collection number: 80.9I/757
Last updated: 21st April 2010

Lacock
Nov. 2d

My dear Emma

The engravings <1> have all been made by myself without the assistance of any person but they were printed at the establishment of Mr Brooker <2> 78 Margaret St Cavendish Square I never operate upon a negative of any kind, but only upon positives, which may be either paper or glass – Of the two, glass is best – And of glass photographs those are best in which the lights are transparent so that you can see distant objects through them, and those are worst in which the lights are like ground glass, confusing distant objects.

Steel plates must always be kept coated either with wax or tallow, which is put on in a moment and taken off almost as quickly – They cannot be trusted even a single day, unless well wrapped in dry paper, because a rust spot is fatal to them & cannot be got rid of, or burnished out, without much difficulty. You say you have a very nice printing press, do you mean a rolling press for copperplate printing? It is a difficult thing to do well, I do not attempt it myself but send all my plates to Mr Brooker in London to be printed – I don’t know whether there are any copperplate printers at Swansea, if so it will be convenient. If you wish to see impressions of your work taken immediately, I think you should have a workman who is used to it, for it is a particular art, to ink the plates well, only acquired by long practice, and moreover it is quite unsuitable for ladies – I wished very much to give Ela and Rosamond <3> some lessons in the art, that they might be able to assist you, but something has always prevented me, thus for example, Monday, the ladies all day at Bath. Tuesday, friends in the house all day, &c &c. so that I am afraid they will know but little of the manipulation, even if I succeed in giving some lessons on the two remaining days tomorrow and Thursday. –

I remain Your affte cousin
Henry Talbot

Wednesday.

It was the same again today and ditto repeated. The ladies had a succession of visitors from Bowood, <4> and all my time also occupied by a pressing request from the Editor of the Photographic News for a duplicate Engraving – He fancied 6000 copies <5> could be taken from a single steel plate, and now he finds they cannot. Tomorrow I really hope there will be leisure for a lesson.

Notes:

1. Photoglyphic engravings - see Doc. No: 07723.

2. Thomas Brooker, engraver & printer, London.

3. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter, and Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter, who were soon going to visit the Llewelyn’s at Penllergaer, Glamorgan, 5 mi E of Loughor: home of the Llewelyn family.

4. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.

5. WHFT made photoglyphic engravings to accompany George Lumley's articles, including ‘Bridge over the Moldau, Prague’; ‘Palace of the Duc de Montpensier, Seville’; ‘The New Louvre, Paris’; ‘The Gate of the Cathedral of San Gregorio, Valladolid’; and ‘The Institute of France’. See ‘Description of Mr Fox Talbot’s New Process of Photoglyphic Engraving’, Photographic News, v. 1 no. 7, 22 October 1858, pp. 73-75; and v. 1 n. 10, 12 November 1858, pp. 114-115.

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