William Trull to Faraday   12 March 1839¹

Warwick-row, Coventry, March 12, 1839.

Sir,

The interest you took in observing the changes of colour in the Raphael Tapestries², after being exposed to light in London last July³, made me anxious to communicate to you the extraordinary effects since produced, by the simple means suggested by yourself and other scientific gentlemen, of a more perfect exposure to light and air, which have for the last seven months been obtained, in a finely situated factory here.

I feared to trespass on your valuable time, but could not resist, after hearing of the great public interest now excited by the new process, called, I believe, "sun painting."

Light and air have done wonders for my tapestries, in dispelling the damp, clearing up the colours, and reproducing others, obscured by the effects of many years' close packing up in boxes. I regret not to be able to make scientific remarks on the progress of the recovery, which others acquainted with chemistry might have done.

The results cannot fully be appreciated but by those who recollect the work when up in London, where the first effects of change unexpectedly commenced.

The greens had all become blue; you, Sir, anticipated a return to the original tints, which has, almost throughout, taken place.

The robes and full colours generally had become dull and heavy; this has gradually gone off, and left a brilliancy of colour and beauty of effect hardly to be excelled. The gold also, as you hinted, has become more clear and bright.

The flesh parts of the figures, which had become pallid, almost to white, have recovered the high tint and deep shadow, and the strong anatomical effect of Raphael.

A renewed freshness now reigns over the whole, and the clearing up of the light in many of the landscape parts is most extraordinary, giving a depth and breadth the cartoons themselves do not now convey, particularly in the Keys to St. Peter, St. Paul at Athens, and The Death of Ananias; where extensive landscape, ranges of buildings, and foliage have sprung up, like magic, on parts quite obscured when up in London eight months back, much of which is either worn, or torn out of Raphael's patterns at Hampton, and painted over, and known only through the means of these Leo Tapestries⁴.

I should have much pleasure in giving you any further information on the subject I am capable of, or in showing the works to any persons taking an interest in them.

I am, &c. Wm. Trull.