Talbotype; 'Talbotypes or Sun Pictures' folder; letter by Talbot, 1848

Details

STUDIO OF HENNEMAN & MALONE; AND WILLIAM HENRY FOX TALBOT
Talbotype; 'Talbotypes or Sun Pictures' folder; letter by Talbot, 1848
proabably a calotype negative exposed under a stencil, dated 'Decr11/48' and annotated 'Gallo-Nitrate p.c.[process?]/on Iod[ised] paper/No developing wash required/Action so powerful/Taken at Mr Malones[sic] lecture/by the length of the combustion of Phosphorous in oxygen' by Robert Murray in ink on recto; leather-backed cloth portfolio, titled 'Talbotypes or Sun Pictures' and royal arms with 'By Royal Letters Patent' legend in gilt on front cover, signed and annotated '122 Regent St'(crossed out) and '43 Piccadilly' by Murray in ink on inside front cover; and ink manuscript letter by Talbot to Murray, dated '10 Dec/48' with Murray's draft of a response in pencil on facing page
print: 7 3/8 x 9 1/8in.(18.7 x 23.2cm.) including borders; folder: 14 x 11in. (35.5 x 28cm.) (3)

Provenance

As lot 13.

Literature

For transcriptions of Talbot's letter and Murray's response, see: L.J. Schaaf, The Correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot, University of Glasgow, https://www.foxtalbot.arts.gla.ac.uk, documents 06196 and 06197.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

This photogram of the stencilled word 'Talbotype' was probably made during a public demonstration by Nicolaas Henneman, his chemist-photographer friend and business partner Thomas Augustine Malone, or both together. The print and the letter, in which Talbot proposes the possibility of subletting his Kensington house to Robert Murray, both date from December 1848, a time when Talbot, Henneman, Malone and Murray were all connected in one way or another to the instrument maker John Newman's premises at 122 Regent St. The Talbotypes or Sun Pictures folder was most likely issued by Henneman and Malone's Regent St. establishment and hence contemporary with the other items as Henneman was appointed by Queen Victoria as "photographer in ordinary to her Majesty"1 in autumn of 1847 which would have enabled him to display the royal arms on the front cover.

1 L.J. Schaaf, The Correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot University of Glasgow, http//www.foxtalbot.arts.gla.ac.uk, document 06001.

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