TALBOT4968

Ipswich Tavern Street
March 18/44

Sir

You have on previous occasions been kind enough to answer my queries, & I would take the liberty of enquiring whether you can inform me where I can obtain paper sufficiently good for negative Calotypes. ¹

I should esteem it a great favor if you would do so, none is to be obtained from Whatmans ² Mill worth having, the paper now sent from there, is very different from that manufactured 2 or 3 years ago.

I have produced some very tolerable pictures but they are spoild [sic], by the mottled & speckled appearance of the paper, as you will see by those I have enclosed.

I need hardly say, that I practise the art entirely for my amusement & edification, & that I do not derive the smallest advantage from it, as you will readily believe, from the specimens

I would also ask what advantage is gained by using the io-gallic paper, ³ instead of applying the gallo-nitrate at the time of using.

I find that the hyposulphite used in fixing the pictures is rapidly decomposed, for which I suppose there is no remedy.

The smallest picture I have sent is intended for Wolseys Gate, ⁴ the only part remaining of the college which he erected in this place.

Hoping that I shall not be deemed intrusive

I am sir Yours very Respectfully
W Thompson.

W.H.F. Talbot Esq^r

Lacock Abbey
Wiltshire