Paris, 5 Avril 1860
Monsieur
J’ai reçu ce matin le bon de 44£ 8/4 pour solde de ma facture remise en mars denier. Je m’occupe de votre commande vous la recevrez à la fin de la semaine de Pâques.
Vous me faites dans votre dernière lettre une observation sur les prix de la lanterne & du régulateur. Ceux que je vous ai fournis pour Royal Institution sont si je me rappelle bien les instruments que j’avais emportés lors de mon voyage à Liverpool. J’aurai lors de l’expédition de la [caisse], l’honneur de vous informer de son départ.
Veuillez, Monsieur, recevoir je vous prie, l’assurance des sentiments avec lesquels je suis votre obéissant serviteur
J. Duboscq | Pour mon Père
Mr Tyndall London
Paris, April 5th 1860
Sir,
This morning I received the sum of 44£ 8/4 in payment of my invoice which was sent last March. I am taking care of your order;2 you will receive it at the end of the Easter week.
In your last letter3 you make an observation on the price of the lantern & of the regulator. Those that I provided to you for the Royal Institution are, if I remember correctly, the instruments that I carried on my trip to Liverpool.4 Once the parcel is sent, I will have the honour of informing you of its departure.
Please, Sir, I beg you to accept the assurance of the warmest wishes with which I am your obedient servant
J. Duboscq | For my Father5
Mr Tyndall, London
RI MS JT/1/D/181
Letter signed ‘J. Duboscq’, Louis Jules Duboscq (1817–86), a highly esteemed French scientific instrument maker. The letterhead included the following information, ‘J. Duboscq. | Student and successor of SOLEIL | 21, Odéon Street. | at the back of the courtyard (J. Duboscq. | Eleve & Succ[esseu]r de SOLEIL. | 21, Rue de l’Odéon. | au fond de la Cour)’. Duboscq and the optician Jean Baptiste François Soleil (see n. 5) were both based at that address.
your order: Duboscq specialized in optical and photographic equipment. (John Hannavy, Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography: A-I, 1 (Routledge: 2008), p. 445). It is uncertain what Tyndall had ordered.
In your last letter: letter missing.
on my trip to Liverpool: Duboscq exhibited instruments at the annual meeting for the BAAS, which in 1854 was held in Liverpool.
For my Father: It is possible that this a reference not to Duboscq’s own father, a cobbler, but to his father-in-law, Jean Baptiste François Soleil (1798–1878). Duboscq trained under Soleil (John Hannavy, Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography: A-I, 1 (Routledge, 2008), p. 445), and his stamp named himself as student and successor of Soleil.
Please cite as “Tyndall1693,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on