Reading <1>
Decbr 13 /45
Sir/
I am sory I can not send you the Iodized paper with thiss I have got it ready only it want [illegible] I mayt have done it to day but been engaged with Mr Smeeton <2> in remedying the defects in the negatives as he is goin a way nex week like wise had som lesson in varnishing he having acepted my offer of five guineas I will Send you som Specemen with the Iodized Paper nex week altho I have send you a good lot [&?] have about sixhunderd Still here but cheifly belonging to the pencil of nature <3> I will Send the Bill nex week for fear you Should not receve the box to day your
Obedient Servant
N Henneman
Notes:
1. Nicolaas Henneman (1813–1898), born in Holland and trained in Paris, was WHFT’s valet who emerged as his assistant in photography. Henneman set up his Calotype works at 8 Russell Terrace, Reading. Commencing operations at the start of 1844, it functioned both as a photographic studio and as a photographic printing works and continued through late 1846, at which time Henneman transferred his operations to London. Although Talbot supported Henneman through custom, such as printing the plates for The Pencil of Nature, and loans, it was always Henneman's operation. His business cards made no mention of "The Reading Establishment," the designation that it is popularly given today; the only contemporary use of that title seemed to be by Benjamin Cowderoy - see Doc. No: 05690 - and in Henneman's initial correspondence with WHFT.
2. Possibly John Smeeton, photographer, registered at 529 Kingsland Road, London, 1869–1871, see Michael Pritchard, A Directory of London Photographers 1841–1908 (Watford: ALLM Books, 1986), p. 85, [See Doc. No: 05444].
3. WHFT, The Pencil of Nature (London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, June 1844–April 1846 [issued in six fascicles]).