TALBOT4898

Dear Sir,

Your recent Packet of Calotypes, for which I beg to thank you, contains several most beautiful pictures. D^r Adamson ¹ thinks that some of them are the best that have any where been executed, and I agree with him. The Inner view of University College ², and the Gate, when viewed with one Eye and strongly illuminated are almost cases of Transubstantiation. ³ No Daguerreotype picture, however sharp, can equal them.

I gave your letter, & the two Calotypes to D^r Adamson who has sent them to his brother ⁴ in Edin^r, who will communicate with you on the subject of his Negatives.

I think your plan of publication excellent. The same Idea had occurred to M^r Hill ⁵ & M^r Adamson, who advertised it some time ago as a plan in contemplation.

M^r Adamson & M^r Hill put up all their Calotypes by Cutting off the black border, and attaching them to Bristol Board. ⁶ I have done this to several of yours, and find the effect much more agreeable than when the black border is retained. The effect is particularly good with dark pictures.

My reason for wishing the Calotype process to be sufficiently sensitive when the Sitter is illuminated by Gas, ⁷ is that during 8 months of the year sitting in the open air is very inconvenient and disagreeable, and while a strong light distorts the pictures and gives an odious expression, the flowing hair, & the loose portions of female drapery can never be sharply depicted. –

I have been very much struck with the different Calotypes of the same person. In many of them, where the Sitter was steady – the family likeness is scarcely preserved.* Does this arise from the Camera? I have seen among M^r Adamsons Calotypes pictures of Men & Women in one of which the Sitter was decidedly good looking and in the other hideous. There is something yet to be done in reference to this point.

Believe me to be Dear Sir Ever Most Truly y^rs
D Brewster

S^t Leonards' College
Nov^r 28^th 1843

*Compare the Enclosed one of myself with those Taken by you