Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851. . . .
Office for the Executive Committee,
Exhibition Building,
Kensington road, London.
10 Septr 1851.
Sir
Referring to my letter of the 20th Ulto in which I had to request your permission to compensate Mr Owen for certain experiments made by him in taking Talbotypes of objects in the building, and to your personal communication subsequently held with a member of the Executive Committee when you expressed a wish that a license [sic] to practise the Art should be obtained from you in the usual course I am directed by the Executive committee to say that having understood that the Cost of a license from you to take Talbotypes not for Sale is about £20. they request that you will have the kindness to grant them such a license –
I am further instructed to explain to you that the Executive Committee propose under this license to engage such assistance as they may find necessary to take the Talbotypes required, which as I believe you already understand will be used in illustrating certain Copies of the Jurors reports to be presented to Foreign Countries and will not of course be for sale. <1>
I have the honor to be Sir Your most obt Servt
M. Digby Wyatt
Secy
To
The Honble H. Fox Talbot
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851: Reports by the Juries. Four volumes, illustrated by original photographic prints from negatives by Hugh Owen and Claude Marie Ferrier. In the copies given to WHFT, a dedicatory sheet was inserted (most likely printed up by him): 'This Work, on the Results of the Great Exhibition of 1851, Illustrated with Photographic Plates, being One of Fifteen Copies Given by the Royal Commissioners to H.F. Talbot, Esq. of Lacock Abbey, as The Inventor of this Branch of the Photographic Art, was by him presented to _____'. This publication caused WHFT considerable consternation at the time, for he felt that the Commissioners had stealthily and unfairly taken the job of printing the plates away from Nicolaas Henneman. For a summary of this complex situation, see Nancy B Keeler, 'Illustrating the "Reports by the Juries" of the Great Exhibition of 1851; Talbot, Henneman, and Their Failed Commission,' History of Photography, v. 6 no. 3, July 1982, pp. 257-272.