Dear Sir,
I regret extremely that the pressure of our business here on the Tests prevents me from the pleasure of going to Lacock. M. Mansion’s Talbotypes <1> are truly gems. I sat yesterday and he is to make a Jewel of me, which is but fair as I have so often performed the part of Matrix <2>.
Mr Claudet <3> has tried the two folds of Paper between the negative & Positive, and the effect which I saw is beautiful as in my expts. – I see that they wd [fain?] deprive me of the [illegible] of this, because transparent paper had been interposed for a difft purpose!
I hope to see you before you set off for Belgium. I beg you will give me a Calotype of your little Jewels, <4> & Believe me, with kindest regards to Mrs Talbot <5>
Ever Most Truly yrs
D Brewster
149 New Bond Stt <6>
April 24th 1845
Notes:
1. Lady Elisabeth Feilding titled a photograph ‘M. Claudet & Mansion with a paletter’ in a 7 February 1846 note to the Duke of Devonshire (NMeM, Bradford). This photograph (Schaaf 3774) is still at Chatsworth; another print from this negative is reproduced in Larry J Schaaf, Sun Pictures Catalogue Three: The Harold White Collection of Works by William Henry Fox Talbot (New York: Hans P. Kraus, Jr, 1987), p. 40. Leon Mansion, a London miniature painter and artist. See L. Mansion, Letters upon the art of miniature painting (London: R. Ackermann, 1822). Mansion’s colouring of daguerreotypes was advertised in the Art Union, 1 July 1845, and the Athenaeum, 4 July 1846, p. 601. See Larry J. Schaaf, Sun Pictures Catalogue Five: The Reverend Calvert R. Jones (New York: Hans P. Kraus, Jr, 1987), p. 13. [Also see Doc. No: 05381 and Doc. No: 05398.
2. The rock from which a precious stone derives its origin [that is, Brewster, by sitting for his portrait, had often been the raw material for the art of others].
3. Antoine Françoise Jean Claudet (1797–1867), London; French-born scientist, merchant & photographer, resident in London.
4. That is, the Talbot children.
5. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
6. Although this at first appears to be 249, the addresses on New Bond Stret did not range nearly this high.