Dear Ken, The www is quite wonderful, "it's wonders to perform"! I have only just received your note re: Ernst Lacan and Talbot ! Yes it would be of interesting to pin him down. So far I am only up to 1838. It is hard to resist the temptation to jump through to the photographic and photomechanical phases. M
Hi Ken, thank you for your observations and questions too. The British Library Stereoscopic Magazine books are fascinating as all were produced posthumously, and many of Howlett's Rouen images appear credited with his name. There are further Rouen images which are assumed to be by Howlett despite no direct reference. It is not clear how his images came to be used after his death but I suspect Roger Fenton may have encouraged their use, though I have no proof.
I have only seen one of the non stereoscopic images in the collection of Norfolk Records Office but there were some in the Photographic Society exhibition of 1859 (again exhibited one month after his death), reviewed separately from the stereoscopic exhibits, so they must be somewhere! Your Great Eastern question is interesting and all I can say is that I have only seen the Brunel chains portrait as a LSC image in full and cropped versions as a carte de visite and many LSC stereos of the Great Eastern post Howlett's death. I have not had the pleasure of viewing many of his images in person and sometimes these are blind stamped Photographic Institution, the only Robert Howlett blind stamp I have seen is on a Great Eastern image in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection. There were advertisements for the "Leviathan" photographs in Notes and Queries in early 1858 with large views priced at 7s 6d with smaller images at 5s each. In these advertisements it is interesting to note that Mr Brunel and Captain Harrison are mentioned by name, but not John Scott Russell. There was a portrait of Scott Russell by Howlett which appeared in the Illustrated Times 24 page special edition "Leviathan Number" but I have not seen it elsewhere.
Hi Ken, I'm not sure how to reply as this is my first! I wanted to thank you for your information and, although I have many Howlett Rouen images already in both full and stereoscopic formats, I would be delighted to see if there are any others which may have slipped through the net. Can you suggest a way that I could view? Best wishes, Rose
Kenny,
Looking forward to adding it to my chronology. By the way I have another segment of my site, not yet online; for now I am calling it: "Photography: essential texts"
I have several published and unpublished texts which I intend to put on line as PDF files [ This is the only format I have found, to date, which does not lose footnotes if you transfer texts from Word] Texts such as the Wedgwood-Davy paper; An Account of the Art…etc.,; Waterhouse: History of the Camera Obscura, History of the Salts of Silver; Lady Eastlake on Photography; Maskelyne: The Future of Photography written 1846-7: Niepce: correspondence 1826 on relating to his English visit - translated in English Plus several others written by yours truly.
michaelg
BTW, we have a carte de visite of Ernest Lacan with an envelope (dated?) sent to Talbot when he stayed in a Parisian hotel. Would this possibly help your chronology? Yes! is it dated?
Dear Kenny and Jenny,
I have recently spent some time with Terry Bennett - we share a common interest in Jocelyn, that is William Nassau. You probably know of the two albums he has containing the Jocelyn and Vacher material centered around Shanghai in the mid/late 1850s. Over the last 5 years i have had an interest in the first photographers in Taiwan and this has, of course, now spread to included the treaty ports and Shanghai in particular. Terry informed me that you might have some related Jocelyn material.
I am currently working on two Vacher albums that are in a local collection and attempting to reconcile the contents of the two related collections.
I am sorry that I have not been in touch for some time - a lot of water has gone under the bridge so to speak and I now have not connection with Lacock or the National Trust; I am once again a free agent.
Comments
Dear Ken, The www is quite wonderful, "it's wonders to perform"! I have only just received your note re: Ernst Lacan and Talbot ! Yes it would be of interesting to pin him down. So far I am only up to 1838. It is hard to resist the temptation to jump through to the photographic and photomechanical phases. M
Many thanks for the offer Ken, and I will certainly take you up on it though I am nowhere near Essex.
Hi Ken, thank you for your observations and questions too. The British Library Stereoscopic Magazine books are fascinating as all were produced posthumously, and many of Howlett's Rouen images appear credited with his name. There are further Rouen images which are assumed to be by Howlett despite no direct reference. It is not clear how his images came to be used after his death but I suspect Roger Fenton may have encouraged their use, though I have no proof.
I have only seen one of the non stereoscopic images in the collection of Norfolk Records Office but there were some in the Photographic Society exhibition of 1859 (again exhibited one month after his death), reviewed separately from the stereoscopic exhibits, so they must be somewhere! Your Great Eastern question is interesting and all I can say is that I have only seen the Brunel chains portrait as a LSC image in full and cropped versions as a carte de visite and many LSC stereos of the Great Eastern post Howlett's death. I have not had the pleasure of viewing many of his images in person and sometimes these are blind stamped Photographic Institution, the only Robert Howlett blind stamp I have seen is on a Great Eastern image in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection. There were advertisements for the "Leviathan" photographs in Notes and Queries in early 1858 with large views priced at 7s 6d with smaller images at 5s each. In these advertisements it is interesting to note that Mr Brunel and Captain Harrison are mentioned by name, but not John Scott Russell. There was a portrait of Scott Russell by Howlett which appeared in the Illustrated Times 24 page special edition "Leviathan Number" but I have not seen it elsewhere.
I hope this is of some help! Rose
Looking forward to adding it to my chronology. By the way I have another segment of my site, not yet online; for now I am calling it:
"Photography: essential texts"
I have several published and unpublished texts which I intend to put on line as PDF files [ This is the only format I have found, to date, which does not lose footnotes if you transfer texts from Word] Texts such as the Wedgwood-Davy paper; An Account of the Art…etc.,; Waterhouse: History of the Camera Obscura, History of the Salts of Silver; Lady Eastlake on Photography; Maskelyne: The Future of Photography written 1846-7: Niepce: correspondence 1826 on relating to his English visit - translated in English Plus several others written by yours truly.
michaelg
Michael
I have recently spent some time with Terry Bennett - we share a common interest in Jocelyn, that is William Nassau. You probably know of the two albums he has containing the Jocelyn and Vacher material centered around Shanghai in the mid/late 1850s. Over the last 5 years i have had an interest in the first photographers in Taiwan and this has, of course, now spread to included the treaty ports and Shanghai in particular. Terry informed me that you might have some related Jocelyn material.
I am currently working on two Vacher albums that are in a local collection and attempting to reconcile the contents of the two related collections.
I am sorry that I have not been in touch for some time - a lot of water has gone under the bridge so to speak and I now have not connection with Lacock or the National Trust; I am once again a free agent.
Kind regards
michaelg [Michael Gray]