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Document number: 3921
Date: 21 Aug 1839
Recipient: BERTOLONI Antoino
Author: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art Dept of Photographs New York
Collection number: Bertoloni Album
Last updated: 6th May 2013

Londres,
31 Sackville Street <1>
le 21 Août 1839

Monsieur

M. Strangways <2> me dit qu’il va envoyer un Courier en Italie, j’ai profité donc de cette occasion pour vous écrire deux mots. J’espère que vous avez reçu le paquet des dessins photogéniques <3> que je vous ai envoyé (il y a deux mois environ). À présent j’ai joint à cette lettre quelques autres petites choses: savoir, une vue de ma maison de Campagne <4> (qui était autrefois une vielle Abbaye, fondée en l’année 1229) C’est [sic] vue est prise avec la Camera Obscura. Puis il y a un échantillon de mes dessins faits avec le Microscope Solaire <5> C’est un morceau de dentelle agrandi 400 fois en surface. Ceci sera surtout utile aux Naturalistes puisqu’on peut copier les choses les plus difficiles par exemple les crystallisations les parties minitieuses des plantes, &c. &c. avec beaucoup de facilité. Puis il y a une Graminée <6> et un morceau de dentelle <7>, et un autre de crêpe, <8> grandeur naturelle, pour en montrer combien l’image est nettement dessiné [sic]. J’ai connu et pratiqué cette art depuis l’année 1834.

J’ai l’honneur d’être Monsieur votre serviteur très dévoué
H. F. Talbot


Translation:

London,
31 Sackville Street
21 August 1839

Dear Sir

Mr Strangeways tells me that he is going to send a Courier to Italy, I have therefore taken advantage of this situation to write you a few words. I hope that you have received the package of photogenic drawings that I sent you (about two months ago). This time, I am sending with this letter some other little things: that is, a view of my Country house (which was once an old Abbey, founded in the year 1229). This view is taken with the Camera Obscura. Then there is a sample of my drawings done with the Solar Microscope. It’s a little piece of lace enlarged to 400 times its actual size. This will be useful especially to the Naturalists, since one can copy the most difficult things with much ease, for example crystallizations, tiny parts of plants, &c. &c. Then there is a Gramina and a piece of lace, and another piece of crêpe, in their actual sizes, to show how clearly the image is drawn. I have known about and practised this art since the year 1834.

I am honoured to be Sir your devoted servant
H. F. Talbot


Notes:

1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.

2. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.

3. Bertoloni preserved many of the photographs that WHFT sent to him in an album, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This and two other letters from WHFT to Bertoloni, along with a 15 August 1839 letter from William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways to Bertoloni are also included in this album, [See Doc. No: 03887, and Doc. No: 04089]. See also Malcolm Daniel, ‘L’Album Bertoloni’, Fotografia & Fotografi a Bologna, 1839-1900 (Bologna: Grafis, 1992); and Graham Smith, ‘Talbot and Botany: The Bertoloni Album’, History of Photography, v. 17 no. 1, Spring 1993, pp. 33–48.

4. For this image see ‘Abbazia de Lacock fabbricata nel 1229, presentemente abitazione’, Schaaf 3689.

5. For this image see ‘Pezzo di Merletto ingrandito 400. volta in superfice col mezzo’, Schaaf 2281.

6. For this image see ‘Graminacea’, Schaaf 3430.

7. For this image see ‘Pezzo di Merletto’, Schaaf 2280.

8. For this image see ‘Pezzetto di velo’, Schaaf 2279.

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