William Henry Fox Talbot, the father of photography, came to visit his uncle Sir Charles Lemon in August 1841
The calotype photographs he took were the first ever taken in Cornwall recording the architectural details of the house – they show a shot of family and friends delighting in being together and enjoying the fun of having their photograph taken.
Two men and two women at Carclew House, Cornwall: Schaaf no 227
Image size: 17cm x 20.9cm
Paper size: 18.9cm x 22.7cm
Salted paper print
This striking image shows a party of four people standing on and below the balcony to the east of mansion portico.
The two men are both dressed in long tailed coats and high collars. Sir Charles Lemon is on the left, shown in profile. He was 57 years old at the time the picture was taken and is shown balding and leaning, perhaps a little jauntily, on a cane. Both men are looking up at the ladies, and the other man has his back fully to Fox Talbot. There is some debate as to who this second man is. We know that both Charles James Fox Bunbury and John Sterling were staying at Carclew during Fox Talbotâs visit.
Sterling wrote a letter to his father dated 29th August 1841 describing his visit:
âI returned yesterday from Carclew, Sir C. Lemonâs fine place about five miles off, where I had been staying a couple of days, with apparently the heartiest welcome. . . Sir Charles is a widower (his wife was sister to Lord Ilchester) without children, but had a niece staying with him, and his sister Lady Dunstanville, a pleasant and very civil woman. There was also Mr. Banbury, eldest son of Sir Henry Bunbury, a man of cultivation and strong talents; Mr. Fox Talbot, son I think of another Ilchester lady, and brother of the Talbot of Wales, but himself a man of large fortune, and known for photogenic and other scientific plans. . .â
Andrew Lanyon, 1984, “The first Cornish photographs?”, History of Photography, 8: 333-336
The two women have been identified as Sir Charlesâ sister, Lady Harriet Dunstanville, and his niece Louisa Emilia Fox. Lady Dunstanville was 64 at the time and is dressed in light colours with a shawl held by a brooch and wears a white lace bonnet. The younger woman, Louisa, also wears a white shawl over her darker dress and she appears to have ringlets framing her face. Both ladies lean against the balustrade, as if in conversation with the men below. It is a very relaxed composition.
Sir Charles Lemon, despite saying that this picture was his favourite in a letter to Talbot and asking for extra copies, still suggests there was room for improvement:
âIf we had made Bunbury sit down and put a wheelbarrow opposite the long front of the balcony what a pretty composition that would have made.â
Talbot Correspondence Project: LEMON Charles to TALBOT William Henry Fox, Doc No 3935, 1841
At least one copy of the image was made before the bottom corner was cut off due to poor coating in this area.
Image size: 16.5cm x 20.3cm
Paper size: 18.5cm x 22.5cm
Salted paper print
A copy of this image, possibly the original sent to Sir Charles, is held by Kresen Kernow. Unfortunately the disastrous fire which engulfed his home, Carclew, is likely to have destroyed virtually all the surviving Fox Talbot prints from Sir Charlesâ time. One print however held in the Kresen Kernow archive does appear to have come from that period and perhaps escaped the flames. The paper print is badly faded, perhaps over exposed, and smoke damaged, adding weight to the idea that it came from Carclew house, it has what appears to be Fox Talbotâs signature on the reverse and the date August 1841. (Kresen Kernow, Doc No X546)
With words and research by Elizabeth Dale
Further Information
Fox Talbot Museum at Lacock Abbey