From William Bernhard Tegetmeier   8 January [1868?]1

The Field. | 346, Strand, | London, W.C.

Jany. 8 186

Dear Sir

I have long been desirous of obtaining your photograph; but have never seen any for sale.— On walking down Chancery Lane to day I saw a “Carte” of yours by Maull 62 Cheapside and 187a Piccadilly2

The vendor told me that he had not put the name as he was not sure about it.— That he had long been wanting to get the Cartes and that he should order some more at once before the sale was stopped

Thinking it very probable that they may have been sold without your consent I write a hurried line to apprise you   do not trouble to write an acknowledgement

Yours truly in haste | W B Tegetmeier

C Darwin Esq

Pray excuse me if I have troubled you without cause

1
The year is conjectured from the relationship between this letter and the letter from W. B. Tegetmeier, 9 March 1868.
2
Henry Maull and Co. first occupied premises at 62 Cheapside in 1866 (Post Office London directory 1866 and 1867). Maull had formerly been in partnership with George Henry Polyblank. The photograph referred to may be that taken by Maull and Polyblank circa 1857 (see frontispiece to Correspondence vol. 8). Erasmus Alvey Darwin had suggested that CD give general permission for Polyblank to sell this photograph (Correspondence vol. 10, letter from E. A. Darwin, [April–May? 1862]). The photographic ‘carte’ or ‘carte de visite’, smaller than a conventional portrait, became popular in the 1860s and several were made of CD between then and the end of his life. See Browne 1998, pp. 253–80.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4971,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4971