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Document number: 4590
Date: 24 Aug 1842
Dating: 1842?
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: TALBOT Christopher Rice Mansel
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA42-64
Last updated: 19th May 2010

My dear Henry

There is so little inducement to copy nature in London, that I do not intend doing more than experimenting upon the paper to see if I can make it sensitive. I am not at all satisfied with the method of fixing which you use, for I find the calotypes fade very fast. Perhaps they ought to be soaked instead of being merely brushed over.<1> I think you ought to make experiments on back grounds to your portraits. For instance suppose a trial were made cæteris paribus, <2> of a black absorbent background, such as velvet or plush. Again a perfectly white sheet, and there note the effect produced upon the portrait itself – I make these remarks because all the selections I have seen of yours, seem to me to be badly chosen and not to do justice to the subject. The article you had for back ground for my portrait, was a dark but also a reflecting surface, which is the most injurious imaginable to a back ground.

You say nothing of Carclew <3> have you given up that journey?

Believe me Yours ever truly
C R M Talbot

London
Augt 24


Notes:

1. Kit was certainly correct, for inadequate fixing and inadequate washing dogged the results at this time.

2. ‘Other things the same’, or ‘all other things being equal’.

3. Carclew, Cornwall, 3 mi N of Penryn: seat of Sir Charles Lemon.

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