Mount Edgcumbe House, Devon
Extremely rare but heavily faded, with the main facade of the home clearly identifiable, this is one of a believed 6000 original Talbotypes published in the June, 1846 issue of the Art-Union journal of London: the very first time a photograph appeared in a mass market magazine.
Various other views were also supplied by Talbot for the publication, a commission unfortunately compromised by the fact all of the calotypes were believed to be insufficiently fixed and washed by Nicolaas Henneman’s overworked Reading printing establishment. (1.)
The editors of the Art-Union were keen to go into detail on how Fox Talbot’s “Sun Pictures” (calotypes) were made, refuting the notion they were done by some sleight of hand, and even gave a detailed account of how these photographs were made. The following is an excerpt of editorial comments that appeared opposite this tissue-guarded “sun picture”:
THE ART-UNION
London, June 1, 1846.
THE TALBOTYPE. ⎯ SUN-PICTURES.
Through the courtesy of H. Fox Talbot, Esq., we are enabled to present, with this number of the ART-UNION, an example of the “sun-pictures,” of the method of the production of which this accomplished gentleman is the inventor. It will be remembered that we have from time to time called attention to these truly wonderful representations, in our notices of Mr. Talbot’s work,
“The Pencil of Nature.” By the public these “sun-pictures” are still misapprehended-still “misnomered;” we shall accordingly, in this notice, show what they are not, and endeavour to explain what they are, as it is yet far from generally accepted that they result from the action of light alone, and are not produced by some leger-de-main of Art. (sleight of hand-editor) On their first appearance, artists who were not as yet cognizant of the discovery were utterly at a loss to pronounce upon them-they could, at once, understand that they were charactered by nothing like human handling; there was no resemblance to touch, for the eye to rest upon–they resembled nothing that had ever been done, either in the broad or narrow styles of water-colour washing-they had nothing in common with mezzotinto-nothing with lithography-nothing with any known method of engraving. (p. 143)
In 2003, PhotoSeed queried the world’s preeminent William Henry Fox Talbot historian Dr. Larry Schaaf, who identified the subject matter of this particular Talbotype from the Art-Union:
“it is Mt Edgcumbe, then in Devonshire, near Plymouth – the marital home of Talbot’s sister Caroline – unfortunately, I don’t have a precise date and of course he visited there with some frequency this particular image is Schaaf 1354 -the original waxed negative is in the NMPFT in Bradford, 1937-1678; it was given two LA numbers in error, LA259 and LA596 – you can see it illustrated in John Ward’s Printed Light, p. 43 – the Talbotype label was typical of several that were used at Henneman’s Reading Establishment – the thought is that when they struggled to meet the print order for the Art Union they brought out all the stock possible” – Dr. Larry Schaff (11/03)
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History: Mount Edgcumbe House
Sir Richard Edgcumbe built the original house between 1547 and 1553 and it is said to have served as inspiration for architect Robert Smythson’s Wollaton Hall. It was completely gutted during World War II by German bombs in 1941, with the restoration process beginning in 1958 at the 6th Earl’s instigation. In 1971, the 7th Earl sold the estate to Cornwall County Council and Plymouth City Council, and it has been open to the public since 1988. Its interiors have been restored to 18th-century styles. -Wikipedia (2024)
- Please do visit a wonderful blog penned in late 2016 by Larry Schaaf on the Reading printing works, which he describes as “ the world’s first full-service operation dedicated to photography.”