122 Regent Street
9 October 1852
Sir
I have this day sent per rail a Box containing 2 bottles of Knights Collodion <1> 1 of Thomas' <2> ditto. Six Sheets of Waxed Paper Sensitive, and a photograph by Ross & Thomson <3> directed to you, with regard to the Cosmos <4> and the cause of the delay of the last few numbers. Mr Henneman <5> has directed Mr. Watson <6> (now in Paris) to call at their office with instructions as to its future delivery &c. The account will be sent early next week. When the accountant returns who has lately been absent through illness.
I remain Sir Your Obedient Servant
for Henneman & Co
E Louis Davis
Henry Fox Talbot Esq
Notes:
1. George Knight, photographic supplier, London.
2. Robert W Thomas (d. 1881), London chemist & early member of London Photographic Society.
3. James Ross & John Thomson, Edinburgh photographers.
4. Cosmos: Revue encyclopédique hebdomadaire des progrès des sciences (Paris: Salon du Cosmos, 1852–1863); edited by l'Abbé François Napoléon Marie Moigno (1804-1884), French physicist.
5. Nicolaas Henneman (1813-1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT's valet, then assistant; photographer; opened calotype printing studio in Reading in 1843 and transferred to London in 1848.
6. John Watson (1814-1865), London photographer; assistant to Nicolaas Henneman.