Talbot Correspondence Project: TALBOT William Henry Fox to MOIGNO l'Abbé François Napoléon Marie

� M. l'Abb� Moigno

Lacock Abbey, Chippenham
le 31 Mai 1852

Monsieur

J'aurai le plaisir dans quelques jours de repondre � votre aimable lettre du 22 mai. ^<1> A present je suis emp�ch� par une surabondance d'affaires et de correspondance. Je me borne donc � repondre � ce que vous me dites de votre ami M. Jules Duboscq, ^<2> qui souhaite vendre � Londres les belles epreuves st�r�oscopiques ^<3> que M. Ferrier ^<4> a ex�cut�es pour lui. Je ne ferai pas de conditions � votre ami pour cela. Qu'il les vende librement. Seulement, pour les identifier, qu'il mette son nom ou bien un chiffre sur les epreuves.

Pour remplir mieux cette lettre j'envoye un petit echantillon que je vous prie d'accepter, c'est une t�te de vieillard d'apr�s nature sur 3 secondes. - C'a �t� fait par mon �l�ve M. Henneman. ^<5> C'est le m�me qui a le premier enseign� a Paris l'art de la photographie sur papier, ce qu'il a fait publiquement pendant les mois de mai et juin 1843 � l'�poque o� nous avons fond� la " Soci�t� Calotypique de Paris ^<6>".

L'epreuve sera sans doute bien chiffonn�e par la poste mais l'immersion dans l'eau et ensuite la pression, la feront revenir.

Agr�ez Monsieur l'expression de toute ma consideration
H. F. Talbot

Premier inventeur de la photographie sur papier en Angleterre ^<7>

Translation:

To Abbott Moigno

Lacock Abbey
31 May 1852

Sir

In a few days, I will have the pleasure of replying to your kind letter of the 22 May. At present, I am prevented from doing so by an overabundance of business and correspondence. Consequently, I am only replying to what you said about your friend Mr Jules Duboscq, who would like to sell the beautiful stereoscopic proofs, executed for him by Mr Ferrier in London. I will not impose any conditions on your friend for doing this. He is free to sell them. I only ask that he put either his name or a number on the proofs to identify them.

To better fill this letter, I am sending a small sample which I ask you to accept. It is the head of an old man taken from life in three seconds. It was made by my pupil, Mr Henneman. He is the same person who was the first to teach the art of photography on paper in Paris, which he did publicly in May and June of 1843, at the time when we founded the "Soci�t� Calotypique de Paris".

The proof will doubtless be crumpled in the post, but if you immerse it in water and then press it, it will recover.

Please accept, Sir, the expression of my highest regards
H. F. Talbot

First inventor of photography on paper in England

Notes:

1. See Doc. No: 06617.

2. Jules Dubosq (1817-1886), French optician & instrument maker.

3. Opticians Soleil & Dubosq of Paris produced, at the request of Sir David Brewster (1781-1868), Scottish scientist & journalist, the stereoscopic views and viewers shown at the Great Exhibition, 1851; these views were the first to be publicly exhibited in Britain.

4. Claude Marie Ferrier (1811-1889), photographer & photographic publisher, Paris.

5. Nicolaas Henneman (1813-1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT's valet, then assistant; photographer.

6. The 'Soci�t� Calotypique', as it was referred to in the correspondence, was the name of the business established in 1843 by Hugues Antoine Joseph Eug�ne Maret, Marquis de Bassano (1806-1889), photographic entrepreneur, Paris. WHFT ceded the French patent for the Calotype for ten years to Bassano, and while no official paper has been found on the business, a group of artists assembled to learn the art of the Calotype from WHFT and Henneman. For more on this subject, see Nancy Keeler, 'Inventors and Entrepreneurs', History of Photography, v. 26 no.1, Spring 2002, pp. 26-33.

7. Written in another hand, possibly Moigno's.