112 Gloucester Terrace <1>
Friday
My dear Henry
I beg to send my warmest thanks for your most charming print & kind offer of a box of chemicals – I shall certainly do my best to succeed, and will send you photographs to try upon when we return home – I had an idea before reading your letter that the print was made from a paper photograph,<2> my idea was that you had the negative on the glass to work from! You must tell me whether you prefer paper or glass,<3> as we sometimes print the stereoscopes <4> on glass which is so much finer a substance to receive the print upon. Should I wax the paper or leave it to you? and must they be printed upon albumenized paper or plain paper?-<5>
Nevil Maskelyne<6> is delighted to see your hand writing and recurs to the extreme pleasure he felt on the receipt of the first photographic correspondence<7> he had with you many years ago – I am looking forward with great pleasure to Mrs Talbot’s <8> visit which I shall hope to persuade her to extend beyond the mere week that she promised me –
believe me to remain your very affte cousin
Emma Llewelyn
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr.
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Hyde Park, London.
2. She was referring to WHFT's photoglyphic engraving process, which used a photographic positive to make the printing plate.
3. Either a paper print or a glass positive could be used to good effect.
4. Two photographs, taken from slightly different angles, can convey an illusion of three-dimensional space when viewed in a special viewer, a stereoscope. Invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875), scientist.
5. WHFT's original photogenic drawing paper was called plain paper; albumen coated printing papers (usually commercial) had a smoother and glossier surface.
6. Nevil Story-Maskelyne (1823–1911), photographer, politician & scientist. Son-in-law of Emma Llewelyn.
7. WHFT and Maskelyne corresponded in 1845, but also in 1854. [See Doc. No: 05479 and Doc. No: 05483].
8. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.