Our story, from the period when the "Shepherd and Shepherdess" pictures were rescued from the obscurity of the office drawer at Soho, is best followed in the correspondence which ensued between Mr. Price, who remained in Birmingham, and Sir F. Smith, after his return to town. On the 3rd December, 1862, after some remarks as to the silver plates (innocent imposters in whom we shall lose all our interest directly), Mr. Price writes: to make arrangements, in his capacity of [tiquity of the art. One can feel for a Curator of the Patent Museum, for the discoverer beset with such auxiliaries! transfer to that establishment of the "Sun In much the same spirit a family tradiand Planet." Beyond this he had no tion of Soho was disinterred, one that mission, and, beyond collecting any promised not merely to reveal the nature records he might chance upon with ref- of the art that had perished, but actually erence to steam engines of early date, no to disclose the wicked means employed thought of instituting any inquiries. for bringing it to its end. That Josiah Before night he was destined to fall in Wedgwood's Paris agent should have with strange objects that launched him borne the name of Daguerre was a cirand many others for many a day upon a cumstance invested all at once with wonsea of speculation of a very different kind. derful significance ! On reaching Birmingham Sir Francis at once proceeded to Soho, where he was received by Mr. Price, a gentleman who had acted as the agent of the Boulton family for nearly thirty years. While discussing various matters connected with the establishment of steam machinery at Soho, Mr. Price opened some of the drawers in the office, and pulled out of them some old papers, among them two "crumpled up like old dusters." Flattened out, these are found to be pictures of so singular a kind that, unless they are attributable to photography, it seems hard to account for their production.* The suggestion of photography is no sooner made by his visitor than Mr. Price takes from a drawer- a parcel inscribed "Sun picture of Soho House, the residence of Matthew Boulton, before the alteration of 1791"! Within the parcel, face to face, are found two silvered plates, and on them - common daguerreotytes! Leaving behind him directions for the transmission of the "Sun and Planet," and musing much on the singular appearance of the pictures he has seen, Sir Francis returned to town. I don't The other photos you saw had a number scored on the face, 7, 6, or 9, and these I still hope to get for you in a day or two. want to tease you too much, but suppose I could give you a clue to the camera which made these pictures! I had it once, and did not know what it was for. Some thirteen years ago I showed it to a friend of mine, and he appeared so delighted with it that I could not help giving it to him. When I cleared out Mr. Boulton's old library, Miss Wilkinson told me to take away “all that rubbish,” and do The camera and these old what I liked with it. pictures were amongst the rubbish. Little did I think what they were. On the 16th December, he informs Sir Francis: It will be surprising only to those to whom the history of the thousand and one delusions that have at different times I saw an auctioneer to-day who some years taken possession of the public mind is ago was a common dealer and broker. He unknown, to see how confidently and in knew Mr. Powell (the gentleman to whom the camera had been given), and when I inquired what numbers, so soon as the anteif he knew his address, the subject of the sun daguerreotypian theory of photography is pictures came up. He reminded me that some broached, confirmatory volunteers come years ago, when I turned out all the rubbish trooping in. One gentleman in his zeal and waste paper from the library at Soho, he for the new idea produces a glass posi- bought the old scrap paper, and amongst it tive portrait, which has been so long in was a very curious picture which he could not his family that no one can remember any-make out. I did not recollect any picture thing of the original. He proposes in being amongst the rubbish. forwarding it to Sir Francis to obtain a table-rapped certificate from "the spirits," as to the individual portrayed, and thus supply indisputable evidence of the an He that in says sorting it over he found it and put it on one side. Since then he has frequently brought it out, and has always become bewildered as to what it is. He says it is neither chalk, crayon, India ink, paint, or painting. He will bring it up for me to see. It is in two parts, he says, and from its general description I suppose it is a brother or sister of those I sent you. On the 19th December, he writes: The reply is a telegram from Sir Francis, "Don't give him time to think, but get pictures at once, lowest price you can." On the 22nd, after assuring his correspondent that he will if possible get the pictures for him, Mr. Price proceeds to notice the family tradition I have adverted to. It has to be collated out of the experiences of one Townsend, an old man who had died some eight years before, and who had been Mr. Boulton's "cad," or handy man, and was well known in that capacity to the members of the celebrated Lunar Society which held its meetings at Soho. "In thinking over these pictures," Price writes, "I recollect old Townsend in his gossip telling me that they (the great men) used to have pictures on the table, not the pictures themselves, but the likenesses of the pictures. He explained 'they' were in a dark tent and nothing but a picture on the table." suspension of the trade, because the person Before noticing the very remarkable piece of evidence (the "Dartmouth Letter") on which this conjecture of Government action is based, let us say a word about Eginton, the pensioner that was to be, who now for the first time appears upon the scene. He is certainly no mythological personage, for his biography is contained in the prosaic register of Nagler's Künstlerlexicon, published in 1837, as that of — EGINTON, FRANCIS, a celebrated English with Jarvis, a new revolution in that art, by He effected, in conjunction glass painter. making it an imitation of oil painting. . . ... The article gives a list of the most important of his works, in all some fifty. They consist of historical subjects and portraits in Magdalen College, Oxford; St. Paul's Church, Birmingham; Salisbury and Lichfield Cathedrals, Arundel Castle and Fonthill. His death is given as having occurred at Handsworth, in 1805, when he was in his sixty-eighth year. In January of the following year, the auctioneer has discovered "two more beautiful old sun pictures" among the rubbish, and these are duly ransomed and added to the others. On the 5th February, Price writes, "Boulton and Fothergill sold pictures painted in oil by the dozen at very low prices, and I firmly believe that I have a clue to the secret, The notice is followed in Nagler by but am not yet quite ready to give you another which may possibly, for those details." In confirmation of his views he who pursue this matter for themselves, forwards from among the papers in the possess interest. It is that of "Eginton, Sono office, a batch of copies of invoices Rafael,” whom it speaks of as "glass and orders for "square mechanical paint-painter at Birmingham, a successor of ings," and "oval pictures in forms of the preceding, whose reputation he mainmedallions." Some of the "mechanical tained." paintings" were of great size. In a letter written by a customer in July, 1781, we have the wish expressed that "Rynaldo preventing Armina from stabbing herself" could be had in a smaller form than that in which it was being published,- fifty inches by forty. On the 23rd May, Price announces a very mysterious circumstance that has come to his knowledge. After remarking that the entries in the Soho books prove that a great many of these pictures must be somewhere among the nobility and gentry of London, he goes on, "I think Government had something to do with the In July, Mr. Price writes that he is "startled" at a communication from Sir Francis, to the effect that Miss Meteyard (who was writing the life of Josiah Wedgwood) has found mention of a camera belonging to one of the Wedgwoods in 1791. "You may with safety," she has told Sir Francis, "refer the first experiments in photography to as early a date as 1790 or 1791. In this latter year I find Thomas Wedgwood, third surviving son of Josiah Wedgwood, sending his camera to be mended. . . .” that the camera he has given away may be the very identical camera with which The idea the Lost Art has been practised revives | left him, we are inclined to listen with an in force, and he assures his correspond- indulgent smile. We have a right to ask ent he will try to follow up its traces. something more definite at the hands of a "You may depend upon it," he adds, re- scientific writer, when he refers to these verting to the mystery he has drawn same ramblings as if they were the firmattention to, "this secret was allowed to est of facts. "We were informed," so die out with the death of Eginton and writes the British Journal of Photog the lunatics, and all traces of it were de- raphy, on 16th November, 1863, "that a stroyed at the instigation of the Royal copy of a petition from the well-known Academy and some members of the Gov- painter, Sir William Beechey, to the ernment. In my old letter books hun- members of the Lunar Society, is in exdreds of pages have been torn out be- istence urging them, &c., &c.," in the sides many erasures." words and to the purport and effect of old Townsend's recollections. If there be such a petition in existence, no effort ought to be spared for its production. If there be not- the fable of the Three Black Crows seems in danger of having its proud pre-eminence contested. On 1st November, 1863, Mr. Price has so far despaired of the recovery of the camera as to repeat with complacency the suggestion that has been made by a goodnatured friend that it is probably doing duty in some Staffordshire chimney corner as a saltbox. He speaks of sending up some oil pictures by Eginton, and mentions a fact worth noting as it disposes of one of the many theories which undertook to solve all the difficulties presented by the case, viz. that the papers found were only the intermediate stage, so to speak, between the original and the article produced for sale. The fact is, that the pictures are all reversed. And now for the Dartmouth letter, the famous document which has given such zest to the story by infusing into it the delicate flavour of Court scandal. The letter is one of the few pieces of evidence in this singular case which will bear handling; whether it goes to support the "old cad's" theory, is a very different question. The "old cad" was of opinion that Sir William Beechey was at the bottom of the whole affair. Price's contributions to this part of the story are only the recollections of Townsend. 66 'He told me," says Mr. Price, "that Beechey painted Matthew Boulton's picture,† and when he was at Soho, Mr. Boulton explained to him this invention of taking sun pictures. Sir William then went amongst all the artists and got up a petition to Matthew Boulton and the Lunar Society begging them to stop, because it (the secret) would be the means of shutting up the painters' shops — this was poor old Townsend's expression." And to "poor old Townsend," rambling on in his dotage, according to the light Among the members of the "Lunar Society," who were thus nick-named, were Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Dr. Priestly, Dr. Parr, Sir W. Herschel, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander, Dr. Arelius, Benjamin Franklin, Mr. Roebuck, Dr. Johnson, and Mr. Wedg wood. This is verified by the catalogue of the Royal Academy where the picture was exhibited. The so-called Dartmouth letter, to come to it at last, is a letter written by Matthew Boulton to Lord Dartmouth, the press copy of it being found among Matthew Boulton's papers. It is in these terms: MY LORD, A few days ago I received a letter from Sir John Dalrymple, dated Dublin, May 27th, in which he surprises me by saying, "I have written to Sir Grey Cooper to have a pension of £20 per annum for Mr. Eginton: so if there is any stop write me of it to Scotland, and I will get it set to rights, as I know nothing but inattention can stop it." I As I think I cannot with propriety write to Sir Grey Cooper upon that matter, having have never mentioned the subject to him, or not the honour of being known to him, and as any person beside your lordship, I hope, therefore, to be pardoned for thus troubling you with my sentiments and wishes. In the first place I wish to have an entire stop put to the pension, because Mr. Eginton hath no claim nor expectations. I pay him by the year, and consequently he is already paid by me for all the three or four months spent in that business: and as to an overplus reward effectually, and with more prudence, than giv for his secrecy, I know how to do that more ing him annually £20, which will only serve to keep up the remembrance of that business, and therefore 'tis impolitical. Besides it might, perhaps, be injurious to me, as such a pension might tend to make him more independent of me and my manufacture. His attachment to me, his knowing that no use hath been made of the things, the obliga caution and prudence, render me firmly pertion he is under to me, and his own natural suaded that the scheme will die away in his memory, or at least will never be mentioned. If anybody is entitled to any pecuniary reward in this business it is myself, because I have not only bestowed some time upon it, but have actually expended in money between one and two hundred pounds, as I can readily convince your lordship when I have the honour of artists, "by chemical and mechanical means." One piece of evidence adduced by Mr. Price almost inclines us to believe that the invention did not die suddenly out at all. This is the proof-sheet of an article entitled "Handsworth," supposed to have been written by James Watt for a topographial work (Lewis). If the article was really written by him it is extremely curious, for after mentioning astronomical clocks as having been constructed at Soho, it goes on to say, "The art of copying pictures in oil colours, called Polygraphic (we must bear this name in mind as we proceed), was also invented and pursued here under the direction of Mr. Francis Eginton, to whom it was subsequently resigned, and who became celebrated for his painting upon glass.” To make amends for any disappointment occasioned by our actually necessary Massacre of the Innocents, we will now bring forward another mysterious personage, - unless indeed some critic shall step in and prove him to be only Eginton in disguise, - busier even than Eginton with chemical and mechanical painting, working for a sort of junior his art not merely without molestation by the profession, but under the sanction of names still greater than that of Sir W. Beechey. His secret too is lost, and his works less fortunate than Eginton's, have passed away and left "not a wrack behind." The silver pictures, as I have already hinted, were not real antiques. The inscription on the parcel notwithstanding, they turned out (we shall see how directly) to be daguerreotypes of a date when daguerreotyping was by no means rare. The hopeful inscription on one of the pictures of the broker's shop ["Sun" Lunatics" in London, and practising picture taken by a process invented at the Soho works, Handsworth, the year 1780-85, Flora bedecking Pan'"] was found to be in the hand writing of the broker, who gave as his authority for the legend, Mr. Price! If the complicity of the Government in an atrocious piece of Vandalism is to go too, we owe a word Our new acquaintance is Mr. Joseph of apology to sundry photographic zeal- Booth, a gentleman describing himself as ots who carefully annotated the facts, of Lewisham, artist, and engaged, when and drew attention to the circumstance we first meet with him, in 1784, in makthat Lord Dartmouth's seat was in the ing chemical and mechanical reproducvicinity of Soho, and that Sir Grey Cooper tions of works of art, very much after the was an indefatigable Minister of State. fashion of Eginton at Soho. In one imWe can in truth hardly hope for a con- portant particular he differs materially viction. If we remember that at the from Eginton. He has a turn for authortime that Eginton was busy with his pic- ship, and loves, if we would believe him, tures at Soho, the Soho factory was, so to discourse about nothing so well as the far as the copper coinage of the country new invented Polygraphic art. He makes was concerned, a Royal Mint, it seems his art the pretext for deluging us with possible, to say the least of it, that the in-his views about all things earthly and vention the Government was desirous of supernal-save one - how he made his putting a stop to, the preliminaries of "chemical and mechanical paintings." which invention Boulton had entered on On this point he is reticence itself, and he at the request and under the authority" leaves us, after we have read both his treaof a noble lord, as to which invention tises from end to end, under the uncomBoulton had never spoken to any one but fortable impression that, while pretendhis lordship, and more than all, of which ing to take us into his confidence, he has no use had ever been made, was an in- been laughing at us in his sleeve. The vention more nearly affecting the welfare pamphlets are perhaps as neat a combiof the State than the copying of cele-nation of rigmarole and business "smartbrated pictures, to "" the detriment of ness as anything that has been put for 352 ward by the great showman of our latter | painted in the usual manner." Unless he days, Artemus Ward himself. Booth's is carrying duplicity to first production styles itself A treatise explanatory of the nature and properties of POLLAPLASIASMOS, or the origihal invention of multiplying pictures in oil colours, with all the properties of the original paintings, whether in regard to outline, size, variety of tints, &c.; together with a proposal for a subscription for forming a collection of pictures, truly original, on different subjects, interspersed with occasional remarks on the utility of painting, on the modern improvements in that art, and on the merits of the English school. Magna est veritas et prevalebit. 66 66 never an incredible length his art had nothing in common with engraving, which he denounces as "a metaphysical thought which endeavours to form in imagination a living being without a body or member," while his own art is "that to painting which engraving is to design. Moreover,” he adds, but without our seeing very clearly what the remark is intended to convey, "all the aerial beings of a Shakspear, or a Milton, must be formed of parts which are first realized in nature, else they couid not possibly find a way to the poet's fancy." When he begins seriatim to set out "the imperfecThe "explanatory" treatise is a trea- tions of engraving, and the reason of his tise enlightening us on every imaginable dwelling on those imperfections," we may topic with the exception, as I have said, fairly hope we are on the eve of some of "Pollaplasiasmos; "full of the per-discovery, and when he refers to the plexities of an inventor where his art sarcasms which have been abundantly happens to have even the appearance bestowed" upon his invention, our curiof clashing with the interest of those who osity is on the alert for some piece of may be employed in professions in any contemporary criticism from which we aspect similar to the new undertaking," may form a guess as to its nature. But and the "undetermined state of mind "the hope dies away as we read on and find in which he (Booth) remained for a con- only a string of platitudes about “real siderable time, "not knowing properly grandeur" being something more than "a what method he ought to adopt to usher profusion of gold and glitter," and the his invention into the world with that eye being more pleased than propriety which is necessary for an art when the mind partakes of the same senentirely new." After moralizing on the sation." After wandering off to the hisrelations between capital and genius, the tory of tapestry, Albert Dürer, Hugo de artist is "induced on mature deliberation Carpi, and Mr. Jackson of Battersea (who to throw himself and the product of many has, it appears, all but effected some wonyears' labour at the feet of that impartial derful improvement in paper hangings), public who alone, &c., &c. ;" and accord- he comes to notice the invention of one ingly invites the impartial public to form Le Blond, for printing in colours from "These were cera club for the purchase of his "polla- mezzo-tinto plates. plasiasmos" paintings. "With respect tainly," he says, " very good of their kind, to an idea prevailing that the paintings but the great expense attending the prepmust be mere copies, I must observe that aration of the plates, &c., considerably they cannot be termed so with any pro- enhanced the price to purchasers, and priety, especially when the subjects are though they were much esteemed at that designed on purpose for this work. Per-time, yet they were nothing more than fect coloured pictures will be produced by prints in colours on paper," from which this manner of painting, though the de- we may fairly enough infer that Booth's sign is only made in black, or a slight process was something else. His pictures tinted drawing, and the pieces from such were finished with great nicety, and he is sketches will be as exquisitely painted as particularly severe on the "artistic daubs," if the subject was first laboriously finished which he declares have been the origin upon a piece of canvass." He forestalls of the "wink of wisdom" connoisseurs very curiously an art critic of some celeb-are forced to give in peeping through In connection with artistic rity, who gave reasons why we have no their hands. more of the works of this Lost Art, by daubs he tells us of "a person of Birdrawing our attention to the imperisha-mingham" who "acquired a considerable ble character of the productions of Pollaplasiasmos: "An entire new system of drawing and colouring, which is not subject to either change, cracking, peeling, or any other inconveniences, which too frequently attend even first-rate pictures fortune by indulging a similar mind;" but unless there are circumstances we are not acquainted with in the factory at Soho, the reference can hardly be to the only rival he can have in his own line - the artist Eginton. |