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J.E. Mayall 
291 Mayall, J.E., 433 West Strand - Producer. 
1851 
  
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LL/34645 
  
From "Official Descriptive and illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibition 1851" (London: Spicer Brothers, W. Clowes and Sons), pp. 439-440.
 
[The comments R.E. are by Robert Ellis (F.L.S.) Great Britain.]
 
291 Mayall, J. E., 433 West Strand Producer.
 
Daguerreotypes of various kinds.
 
Daguerreotype panoramas. Niagara Falls. Fairmount Water Works, Philadelphia. Birthplace of Shakspeare. River Avon, with a view of Stratford Church. Ann Hathaway's House.
 
[By a little expenditure of ingenuity, it is perfectly possible to take daguerreotype views of nature in the open fields, by the river side, or on the sea-shore. All that is necessary is to obtain a means of transferring the prepared plate, and also of mercurializing it when impressed, in the dark; and by a small amount of manual dexterity, with the assistance of a piece of black velvet, this may be accomplished. R. E.]
 
Daguerreotype pictures to illustrate poetry and sentiment, the backgrounds in some cases being sketched, and the sitter posed so as to make the whole harmonise together. The Soldier's Dream (Campbell), an illustrated poem (from life), in four tableaux. The Venerable Bede blessing an Anglo-Saxon child (after nature). The Lord's Prayer, in a series of ten designs (from life). The Fisher Boys, a study from nature; and a variety of others.
 
[The application of the daguerreotype to the production of the pictures referred to is effected in the following manner : The sitter, or the persons comprising the group, dressed in appropriate costume, are artistically posed so as to form a tableau vivant, and in this position are taken by the ordinary process. The background is procured either by placing the sitters in front of a scene painted upon canvas, in which case the plate receives the impression as usual, and the scene appears as a natural background to the figures; or, in other cases, the plate is painted with a fine brush, and the landscape, &c., are thus artificially sketched upon its surface. The practised eye will immediately decide which of these methods have been adopted. R. E.]
 
Frame of interesting specimens, including a portrait of Daguerre, the inventor of the art.
 
[The daguerreotype is marked pre-eminently as a result of the advanced science of the present age. The discovery by M. Daguerre of the sensitiveness to luminous impressions of an iodized silver plate, and of the development of the picture by mercurial vapour, was first announced to the French Academy of Sciences, by M. Arago, in January, 1839. The original process of M. Daguerre is not now pursued, bromine and iodine, in combination or succession, being employed to render the plate sensitive to light. R. E.]
 
Daguerreotypes of sculpture, and novel applications of the art to a variety of subjects, comprising everything that is known up to this period.
 
"Crayon daguerreotypes." [This peculiar process is understood to be a French invention. In No. 1197 of the Atheneum, Mr. Mayall has described, in the following terms, the method of producing crayon daguerreotypes :
 
" First. Take a daguerreotype image on a prepared plate as usual, taking care to mark the end of the plate on which the head is produced. When taken, and before mercurializing, remove the plate and place on it a plate of glass, prepared as follows: Second. Cut a piece of thin plate glass of the same size as the daguerreotype plate; gum upon one side of it a thin oval piece of blackened zinc, the centre of the oval to coincide with the centre of the image upon the plate. Having carefully placed the glass thus prepared, with the centre of the zinc disc, upon the centre of the image, expose the whole to daylight for twenty seconds. The action of the light will obliterate every trace of the image from every part of the plate, except that which is covered with the blackened zinc, and also from the thickness of the glass the action will be refracted under the edges of the zinc dine, and will soften into the dark parts. Third. Mercurialize the plate as usual; the linage will be found with a halo of light around it, gradually softening into the background. By grinding the glass on which the disc is fixed, and by altering the size and shape of the disc, a variety of effects may be produced."
 
The appearance of these pictures is extremely singular. The fact that the exposure of plates already impressed with an image in the camera ubscura to daylight entirely removed the original impression, is one of the practical discoveries made by every daguerreotypist who has accidentally lifted the shutter of the plate-holder after removing it from the camera. But such an application of this fact could scarcely have been anticipated. R. E.]
 
Specimens of photography, on glass.
 
[The art of photography on glass is more recent than either the daguerreotype or talbotype processes. But the principles upon which it is successfully practised are essentially similar to those involved in the latter art. In consequence of the inequality of the texture of photographic paper, it became desirable to obtain some more homogeneous medium for the reception of the negative talbotype picture. Glass and porcelain have been employed with great success for this purpose. In order to render the surface sufficiently retentive of the sensitive coating of silver, the plates of glass are covered in the first instance with a thin layer of the albumen of an egg, containing a few drops of a solution of iodide of potassium. The sensitive washes are then applied, and the plate is exposed to the lenticular image in the camera. The picture is developed in the usual manner. The "prints" from glass plates are of the most exquisitely beautiful character. R. E.] 
 

 
  
 
  
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