The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty YearsWerge, John, active 1854-1890
History
The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty Years
Werge, John, active 1854-1890
Photography -- History
I sailed from New York in October 1854, and arrived in England in due
time without any mishap, and visiting London again as soon as I could, I
called at Mr. Mayall's gallery in Regent Street to see Dr. Bushnell,
whom I knew in Philadelphia, and who was then operating for Mr. Mayall.
While there Mr. Mayall came in from the Guildhall, and announced the
result of the famous trial, "Talbot _versus_ Laroche," a verbatim report
of which is given in the Journal of the Photographic Society for
December 21st, 1854. Mr. Mayall was quite jubilant, and well he might
be, for the verdict for the defendant removed the trammels which Mr. Fox
Talbot attempted to impose upon the practice of the collodion process,
which was Frederick Scott Archer's gift to photographers. That was the
first time that I had met Mr. Mayall, though I had heard of him and
followed him both at Philadelphia and New York, and even at Niagara
Falls. At that time Mr. Mayall was relinquishing the Daguerreotype
process, though one of the earliest practitioners, for he was in
business as a Daguerreotypist in Philadelphia from 1842 to 1846, and I
know that he made a Daguerreotype portrait of James Anderson, the
tragedian, in Philadelphia, on Sunday, May 18th, 1845. During part of
the time that he was in Philadelphia he was in partnership with Marcus
Root, and the name of the firm was "Highschool and Root," and about the
end of 1846 Mr. Mayall opened a Daguerreotype studio in the Adelaide
Gallery, King William Street, Strand, London, under the name of
Professor Highschool, and soon after that he opened a Daguerreotype
gallery in his own name in the Strand, which establishment he sold to
Mr. Jabez Hughes in 1855. The best Daguerreotypists in London in 1854
were Mr. Beard, King William Street, London Bridge; Messrs. Kilburn, T.
R. Williams and Claudet, in Regent Street; and W. H. Kent, in Oxford
Street. The latter had just returned from America, and brought all the
latest improvements with him. Messrs. Henneman and Malone were in Regent
Street doing calotype portraits. Henneman had been a servant to Fox
Talbot, and worked his process under favourable conditions. Mr. Lock was
also in Regent Street, doing coloured photographs. He offered me a
situation at once, if I could colour photographs as well as I could
colour Daguerreotypes, but I could not, for the processes were totally
different. M. Manson, an old Frenchman, was the chief Daguerreotype
colourist in London, and worked for all the principal Daguerreotypists.
I met the old gentleman first in 1851, and knew him for many years
afterwards. He also made colours for sale. Not meeting with anything to
suit me in London, I returned to the North, calling at Birmingham on my
way, where I met Mr. Whitlock, the chief Daguerreotypist there, and a
Mr. Monson, who professed to make Daguerreotypes and all other types.
Paying a visit to Mr. Elisha Mander, the well-known photographic case
maker, I learnt that Mr.
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