32 Harley Street <1>
May 14/53
My dear Sir
I beg to thank you for your delicate & admirably executed specimens of Photographic Engraving. <2>
This great step will render possible the publication of miniature books <3> – even of miniature facsimiles of original MSS. &c &c. and I congratulate you on having arrived at so great a result in itself independent of the innumerable applications which it is capable of.
I annex a little photograph by my brother in Law Mr J. Stewart <4> of Pau – of himself on horseback. – It is oversunned, yet the time of exposure was the very shortest it was possible to give by momentarily removing and replacing the cover of the lens – the original impression being a negative on Collodium. <5>
Yours very truly
JFW Herschel.
[Herschel family fair copy]
From. J. F. W. Herschel
To … H. F. Talbot
Harley Street
May 14 1853
My dear Sir
I beg to thank you for your delicate & admirably executed specimens of Photographic Engraving.
This great step will render possible the publication of miniature Books – even of miniature facsimiles of original MSS. &c &c. and I congratulate you on having arrived at so great a result in itself independent of the innumerable applications which it is capable of
I annex a little photograph of my brother in Law Mr J. Stewart of Pau – of himself on horseback.– It is over-sunned, yet the time of exposure was the very shortest it was possible to give by momentarily removing and replacing the cover of the lens – the original impression being a negative on Collodium
Yours very truly
(Sd) J.F.W. H
Envelope:<6>
Sir J. HerschelH. F. Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
near Chippenham
Wilts.
Notes:
1. London.
2. A photographic engraving of the Pantheon, Paris. See Doc. No: 06784.
3. Herschel soon brought this idea before the public in a 6 July letter to The Athenæum and (London) Literary Chronicle, London: adding to a communication by his brother–in–law, John Stewart, he said “that the publication of concentrated microscopic editions of works of reference – maps, atlases, logarithmic tables, or the concentration for pocket use of private notes and MSS, &c. &c. and innumerable other applications – is brought within reach of any one who posesses a small achromatic object-glass …”, no. 1341, 9 July 1853, p.831.
4. John Stewart (1814-1885), photographer and younger brother of Herschel’s wife, Margaret Brodie (neé Stewart). He lived in Paris for some time before moving to this small city in the Pyrenees. The photograph is preserved with the envelope, formerly in the Harold White Collection and now owned by Hans P. Kraus, Jr.
5. An alternative spelling for collodion.
6. The envelope was formerly in the Harold White Collection and now owned by Hans P. Kraus, Jr.