1 HILLSIDE CRESCENT
EDINBURGH
July 6 1863
Dear Sir,
From Saturday to this evening I have been consulting & considering seriously about the Guajara proofs.
I have before me now
A, the first lettered proof of 1st Guajara.
B, the 100th lettered proof of 1st Guajara <plate?>.
C, a proof of your <last?> large Guajara.
Of these we find A to be excellent, save small & unimportant parts are not quite perfect; but the other parts which are, look all the better by contrast; & the good parts are admirably powerful in tone & tint.
B, is not only spoilt by the <inaccuracies?> of the new foreground, but the whole plate is faint & worn looking like an amateur-pulled lithograph, when water has got into the ink: & proving that the plate is worn out by pulling 100 impressions, & would completely falsify the high quality of the first impressions if used any longer.
C, is a fine, large, ambitious plate, with some points in it very good; but, and I have had a three day’s struggle to come to this conclusion, so large a part of the plate is below par, that it is not worthy to stand beside A. I am also told that it is not likely to stand out even 100 impressions like the proof such as it is, and that the steel=covering <sic> does not <illeg> it, & 400 are wanted.
What then is the practical conclusion to be come to, in the practical case before us?
I beg to submit to your approval the following.
1st to be satisfied with the 100 good copies already printed off, of the 1st Guajara, viz. all extending from A to B, but not including B.
2nd to insert a note in the Preface, stating (without reason given) that only 100 impressions of Plate 5 have been printed; and that the copies of the book with a Plate 5, have been sent chiefly to public libraries, Societies, & other places of public reference.
3rd to request you kindly to present to the Observatory to be varnished & preserved there, both your first large steel=plate of the Stationery Office Guajara, and your last copper plate of your own Guajara, or C.
In this manner we secure the highest possible quality of whatever is published, prevent the good impressions being swamped by indifferent ones, and also secure to the Observatory of the future a memento of the Guajara of 1856 more lasting than any paper prints.
& I remain
Yours very truly
C. Piazzi Smyth