TALBOT5632

[The envelope for this letter is in a private collection:]
H^y Fox Talbot Esq^re
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts
England

_________

Malta -
23^rd April

My dear Sir

Using the liberty you were kind enough to give me, I would report my success in the first attempts at Talbotype ¹, which, as far as the ten sheets I reserved from your gift of 50, has been eminent:- & I have adhered chiefly to attempts upon the foliage, the vegetation of the island, grouping figures beneath it with peculiarly good effect - especially the fica d'India which appears to me to be exactly the prickly pear of Mexico on which grows the cochineal.

I have attempted to make some Calotype paper, selecting sheets amongst the different papers I could get - & about one in ten or twelve, succeeds tolerably well, - manipulated by Mr Jones ²' memoranda - but certainly not one unspotted:- all fatal to the positive copies - yet they are equally sensitive with your own. -

As for the copying paper ³, I fail altogether - with the recipe given by M^r Jones: that is, the salted paper washed with the nit. silv: ammonia: nit. acid - & dist. water. - ⁴

-Upon two of your sheets of iodised paper ⁵, (prepared immediately before use with the usual mixture of nit. silv. & gall. acid) I have taken two most perfect positive copies from my own negatives on the same paper. -

But I do earnestly entreat of you the favor of further instructions therein - so that I may prepare my own copying paper. -

I took the liberty lately of begging your order to Henneman ⁶ to send me a larger quantity of the calotype paper of first quality which I may take to Greece, & Syria, &, if you will allow me, I will send to you the best negatives, or such as I conceive will most interest you: but still I should like to be able to make my own paper, upon necessity - & certainly to make sufficiently good copying paper: which seems hitherto the most difficult of all. -

I think my instrument is quite as good as Mr Jones':- & my chemicals, from Chevalier ⁷, excellent - so that this failure is most strange with making my own calotype, & copying, papers.

I have instructed my Brother ⁸, at 54 Torrington Sq^re, London, to pay for, & forward quickly, all that Henneman may sent to him for me: & I wait impatiently for it. -

Mr Talbott's [sic] dear infant ⁹ I saw on board the French steamer a few days ago, in better health, to join her father in Naples: but from himself I have not yet heard since we parted. - No doubt he, & M^r Jones, are making good use of their time, & of the few sheets of paper I supplied them with, at Pompeii & Baiæ. -

I am going to Caletis[?], Athens, Baalbec & Damascus, in about 2 months. I hope when my boy, in the "Volage" ¹⁰, will be on the survey at the former place. -

Most grateful shall I be for any hints, instructions, or commissions, from you, my dear Sir:

May I beg to be most kindly remembered to M^rs Talbott ¹¹ [sic] - & your sweet Children - & that that you will believe me, my dear Mr Talbott [sic],

most truly Yours
Geo W Bridges

I have not Henneman's address - shall I forward to you, the specimens I wish to send? -