Haymarket
March 30th/61
Sir
By a tax of three pence per square inch <1> you entirely shut us out of common work which after all is the best to pay because it is the easiest to do and at the years end your account <2> would be much larger at a penny per inch all round than it will be by limiting us only to works of the highest class
With regard to paying upon Margin that is quite out of the question because some subjects require a larger Plate Margin than others & if we could not estimate for Work the same as other Engravers ie for the proportion actually graved over leaving the good effect of the work when finished to be aided by the taste or judgement of the opperator we should always be in confusion as one plate with the same quantity of labour not calling for a margin or perhaps looking better without would cost so much less than another with the same labour wanting three or four inches of Margin to prevent the subject appearing cramped You must therefore confine the Royalty to the space covered as is the custom of Trade
I do trust you will take the more liberal view and reduce your demand to the penny per inch so as to leave us the chance of gradually making our process known by undertaking cheaper works as the harbingers to more important productions and in asking you to adopt this view I am sure I consult your interest because for one Engraved Plate produced with any pretension to the higher class of art to admit of a heavy [a?] Royalty five thousand are done of an ephemeral character indeed I fear it will close the door to success altogether as not to do the common-work will prevent experience being acquired to accomplish the finer
I remain Sir Your obedient Servant
J. Hogarth
The Honorable
Fox Talbot
&c
Notes:
1. See Doc. No: 08350, to which this is the reply.
2. Of money earned for WHFT under the terms of a licence to use his patented process.