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Document number: 7255
Date: 27 Apr 1856
Recipient: PRETSCH Paul
Author: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA56-022
Last updated: 11th December 2009

[draft:]

P. P.
April 27 /56

MDS/

I see yt y hve lately made a vy interestg commn to ye S. of A. on ye sujt of Ph. G. grg It is with reference to this that I will hve ye honor t make t you a few obsns

I have not seen ye specns wch you showd to ye Socy of Arts but I have no doubt they were worthy of your well knn talents & ingenuity

With regard to ye process employd, so far as ye same has bn described in yr commn to ye Socy of Arts perhaps you are not aware yt I took out a patt in Novr /52 for ye inventn of making photc images or pictures upon surfaces coated with a mixture of gelat. & BC. P and after formatn of ye images developing or completing them sch images by immersion in water, with occasional use of alcohol &c &c.

As I understd that you have formed a company with the view of practically carrying out the Galvoplastic art wth reference to Photgry it appears to me, that you ought to take a license from me to use the above mentd inventn and I will thank you to bring mentn this subject be to ye gentn who are associated with you in this Compy, requestg them to give their attentn to it.

PS. my address is

[expanded version:]

Paul Pretsch
April 27, 1856

My Dear Sir

I see that you have lately made a very interesting communication to the Society of Arts <1> on the subject of Photographic Engraving. It is with reference to this that I will have the honor to make to you a few observations.

I have not seen the specimens which you showed to the Society of Arts but I have no doubt they were worthy of your well known talents and ingenuity

With regard to the process employed, so far as the same has been described in your communication to the Society of Arts perhaps you are not aware that I took out a patent <2> in November 1852 for the invention of making photographic images or pictures upon surfaces coated with a mixture of gelatine and Bichromate of Potash and after formation of the images developing or completing them such images by immersion in water, with occasional use of alcohol etc. etc.

As I understand that you have formed a company <3> with the view of practically carrying out the Galvanoplastic art with reference to Photography it appears to me, that you ought to take a license from me to use the above mentioned invention and I will thank you to bring mention this subject be to the gentlemen who are associated with you in this Company, requesting them to give their attention to it.

PS. my address is

Notes:

1. Society of Arts.

2. WHFT, Improvements in Photographic Engraving, November 1852.

3. The Patent Photo-Galvanographic Company (commonly, The Photogalvanographic Company) was based on the work of Paul Pretsch (1808–1873), Austrian photographer & inventor and former Manager of the Imperial Printing Establishment in Vienna. Located in Holloway Road, Islington, London, from 1856-1857, Pretsch took over as manager and Roger Fenton (1819–1869), photographer & lawyer, was a partner and their chief photographer. Starting in late 1856, they published a serial portfolio, Photographic Art Treasures, or Nature and Art Illustrated by Art and Nature, illustratated with photogalvanographs derived from several photographer's works. Photogalvanography was uncomfortably closely based on elements of WHFT’s patented 1852 Photographic Engraving but, unlike Talbot, the plates were heavily retouched by hand. Compounding the legal objections of Talbot, their former manager, Duncan Campbell Dallas, set up a competing company to produce the Dallastype. The company collapsed and near the end of 1860 Pretsch, out of money, allowed his patent to lapse. A public appeal was launched in 1861 to assist him but he returned to Vienna in 1863 in ill health, going back to the Imperial Printing Establishment, but finally succumbing to cholera. See Doc. No: 07253; Doc. No: 07660; Doc. No: 07465.

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