Mount Edgcumbe<1>
Octr 6th 1858
My dear Henry
I received your parcel quite safe, & Milord<2> begs me to say he is extremely obliged to you for them, & for sending them so quickly. – They are very curious, as far as we can make out – but that is not much – & we want you very much to enlighten our minds a little, before presenting them to Mr Turner<3> – as Milord would like to be able to tell him something about them – We wish therefore you wd tell us all you can, without compromising your secret – as I imagine you have a patent-<4>
In the first place, they look like other photographs – I mean there is nothing in their appearance to make one suppose they are engraved – 2ndly what is the advantage of engraving over other Photography, as you can always multiply the positives? 3rd How are these views done from Nature – when we know you have not visited either Paris, Spain or Bohemia lately? 4thly why do they come out small, instead of the usual size?
How lovely our Comet<5> appeared last night! I am so glad you told me abt Arcturus<6> – We were fascinated, & continued spying thro’ glasses all the evening from the Deck – The sky was beautifully bright after sunset, & the brilliance of the whole thing, the moment it cd appear against the bright sky, was surpassingly beautiful – Arcturus shone with red & green colors, like a diamond, thro’ the tail –
Yrs affly in haste to join the Yacht, as steam is up –
Caroline
Notes:
1. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
2. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law - her husband.
3. George Turner, Assistant Master Shipwright at the nearby Keyham Dockyards. The Edgcumbes had requested some new photographs from WHFT to present to him - see Doc. No: 07701.
4. WHFT had sent examples of his newly patented Photoglyphic Engraving process, an improved photogravure process building on his 1852 Photographic Engravings. It is difficult to imagine that Caroline, who was with WHFT when he had his inspiration on Lake Como in 1833 and followed his photography closely in the 1840s, was unaware of his extensive work in this field. She was a bit fuzzy about photographic engraving in 1853 (see Doc. No: 06883), but then, Uncle William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways was only vaguely informed by 1858 (see Doc. No: 07764). It may be that with WHFT spending increasing amounts of time in Scotland in the 1850s, his immediate family was better informed about his work than his dear but far away relations. From her questions, Caroline clearly did not understand that the permanence of silver prints had become a bitter disappointment to her brother and that he sought solutions in printer's ink, primarily for publications. The examples were small in size and of exotic locations because he chose to work from donated examples of stereo photographs on glass, having lost interest in taking photographs himself.
5. Donati’s comet.
6. A red giant star in the constellation of Bootes.