WILLIAM BANTING

Letter to George Swan Nottage, 26th January 1865

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WILLIAM BANTING
Letter to George Swan Nottage, 26th January 1865
A three-page ink manuscript letter addressed Dear Sir [G. S. Nottage Esqr.] and signed Wm. Banting 4, The Terrace, Kensington, W., detached from album page with ink manuscript inscription William Banting, Undertaker to the Royal Family, he was a very corpulent Man, and discovered a method of reducing corpulency,..... (2)

Lot Essay

Mr. Banting begins by thanking Nottage for a portrait of Tennyson which he has sent with a previous letter. He continues I have several personal friends Photographers...Heath - Joubert, Cundall and Downes - Crellin.....but I have felt bound to decline having my likeness taken..... On the role of photography in arousing public recognition of individuals he says Public curiosity is one of the most troublesome and dangerous elements to excite - my present unfortunate popularity may have accomplished this but so long as my physiognomy is not known I am safe.......

George Swan Nottage (1823-85) was the founder in 1854 of the London Stereoscopic Co. and later Lord Mayor of London.

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