358 THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 



early photographs, supposed to be by T. Wedgwood, which were 

 brought before this society in 1863, and are now in the society's col- 

 lection. Where she got the information about Dr. Matthew Turner's 

 burnt-in silver prints she does not say, and I have not l)een able to 

 find any other reference to them. 



We find, however, that the intimacy between Doctor Turner and 

 the Wedgwoods began in 1702, and afterwards that he compounded 

 varnishes, fumigations, bronze powders, and other chemical appliances 

 for Josiah Wedgwood. In a letter from Wedgwood to Bentle}-, about 

 1767, he says: "One of the fumigations is a most excellent enamel 

 color — so line a j^ellow that 1 have some hopes of the great work 

 being perfected, and that we shall be able to turn even the dirt under 

 our feet into gold." Now there is a great deal about glass staining 

 with silver and other yellow enamels in Doctor Lewis's Philosophical 

 Commerce of the Arts (1763) alread}^ noticed, and it is quite possible 

 that Doctor Turner ma}^ have used this source of information. There 

 is evidence to show that T. Wedgwood was engaged in experiments 

 on the reduction of silver for the ornamentation of pottery al)out 

 1790. Miss Mcteyard says (op. cit., ii, 585): "To solve some problems 

 connected with light he used silver differently prepared, and his obser- 

 vations thereon led to, the inv^ention of what was termed 'silvered 

 ware,' namely, a pattern of dead or burnished silver upon a black 

 earthenware body. We tirst hear of this ware in 1701." She gives 

 an engraving of a tea traj' ornamented with patterns which could 

 easily have been obtained from stencils, and it may be noted that 

 whereas the previous experimenters in this direction had mostly l)een 

 chemists, young Wedgwood had ver}^ strong artistic instincts, and 

 being accustomed to prepare designs for pottery would more natu- 

 rally be led to the pictorial application of the old methods of obtain- 

 ing images by the reduction of silver salts. There was no discovery 

 of any new principle in this reduction, but the application of it to 

 copying drawings on paper b}" contact or in the camera was a distinct 

 and marked advance toward practical photograph}^ of which the whole 

 credit is undoubtedly due to Wedgwood. We find confirmator}" evi- 

 dence that silver pictures were being made about this time in a letter 

 from James Watt to Josiah Wedgwood, written apparently in 1790 

 or 1791, and beginning thus: "Dear Sir: I thank you for your instruc- 

 tions as to the silver pictures, about which when at home I will make 

 some experiments." 



There is some doubt al)out the date of this letter, Mr. Litchfield put- 

 ting it as above (Tom Wedgwood, p. ISO), while Miss Meteyard notes 

 it as docketed "Hand Mill— 1799'' (CJroup of Englishmen, p.' 150) and 

 says it was written a few days after AVatt visited Etruria, in 1799, on 

 business connected with a hand mill. From correspondence with 

 Leslie, moreover, it seems probable that the early experiments were 



