ROYAL OBSERVATORY
EDINBURGH
July 22 1863
Dear Sir,
The two proofs of the two plates are arrived this evening, & very powerful prints they both are: you must look on them both with satisfaction, for they close your long labours on the subject well.
On the whole I prefer the steel plate to the copper, & therefore, if you have no objection thereto, I shall order Banks to square up the said steel subject, letter, & print it with what dispatch he may, From the steel, I presume, it will be as easy to print 500, as 400; and it may be a question whether the 500 for the book should not be all taken from the same plate; It would look more business=like [sic] for the photoglyphic engraving, so.
In fact I think I will give Banks the order for 500 from this plate, & when he has pulled them all, and printed the tint both to them and to the preceding 100, – I shall have the pleasure of asking you your opinion entitled to so much weight & remain
Dear Sir Yours very truly
C. Piazzi Smyth
[envelope, flap imprinted "Royal Observatory Edinburgh":]
H. Fox Talbot Esqr FRS
Millburn Tower
Hermiston
near Edinburgh
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