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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[2 S. NO 8., FEB. 23. '56.

These are the bearings of Sir Robert Clere, on whose brass are the shields I seek to be informed of. He married first, Anne, daughter of Sir Wm. Hopton, and second, Alice, daughter of Sir Win. Boleyn, of Blicking, and aunt of Queen Anne Boleyn. He attended Henry VIII. in his inter- view with Francis I. at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.

15. Clere and his quarters impaling Tyrrel, with a martlet sa. for difference.

16. Clere, &c. impaling Fulmerstone.

As these give only the direct line, the unknown families will be found in some collateral branches of the family. I have an obscure recollection of some family bearing the arms of the city of Lon- don, but with different tinctures ; they occur among these shields.

Will any correspondent kindly furnish me with a rubbing of the brass of Thomas Clere, in the north side of the chancel of St. Mary's, Lambeth ? I will gladly repay the act in kind.

E. S. TAYLOR.

Ormesby St. Margaret.

[A member of the London and Middlesex Archaeolo- gical Society has kindly offered to furnish the rubbing.]

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

The Application of Photography to the Copying of A ncient Documents, Prints, Pictures, Coins, fyc. Several letters having lately appeared in The Times upon the above subject, which is one in which I have had considerable experience, I beg leave, in reply to several correspondents, to make the following observations.

I consider there is no difficulty whatever in obtaining a perfect fac-simile of nearly every ancient manuscript ; and if the copy is to be made of one half or about three- fifths the size, then an entire book may be copied with- out in any way disturbing it; but in case of a transcript of the exact size, it is needful that great flatness of sur- face should be exhibited to the lens, and it would be re- quired to pin or otherwise fix the object, that this state of even surface may be produced.

I do not meet with documents of the bright blue spoken .of by Mr. Claudet, or of the "gamboge yellow " to which my friend Professor Delamotte refers. It is true you occasionally meet with a brilliantly illuminated capital letter, into the composition of which burnished gold and cobalt blue enter ; but then there is a sufficient difference for the tint of the vellum ground to make the photograph perfectly useful and beautiful at the same time. 1 may call to your recollection an entire page of a manuscript relating to Sussex which I perfectly copied about four years since, the original being in the possession of Mr. Durrant Cooper. In that early specimen there are many colours, and the result was niost satisfactory. I believe that many of our best photographers fail from not using chemicals suitable for the purpose. The collodion adapted for the rapid production of a portrait from life is ill suited for a fac-simile, where length of time is of no consequence. I believe an old mixed collodion originally made sensitive with a compound of iodide and bromide of ammonium produces the most satisfactory results. But in general any old collodion is to be preferred to that recently mixed.

All the fine lines in a delicate engraving, or the up-strokes of writing, become obliterated when a too rapidly act- ing collodion is used. I expose a light object, say a page of an ordinary printed book, when to be reduced one- half in size, for about three minutes ; but twelve or fifteen minutes will be required when the full size is to be ac- complished, and a longer time still if the object copied is to be magnified. I presume that a single lens is being used. The double-combination lenses will succeed in half the above time ; but then the surface covered in accurate definition of focus is comparatively small. When a single lens is used, no diaphragm is required beyond that usually used. But a double achromatic lens gives much greater roundness and beauty, provided the front lens is much stopped off by means of a diaphragm.

The picture is to be developed in the usual way, with a very weak solution of pyrogallic acid, and very freely dashed over the surface of the collodion, for otherwise stains will be produced from its having become more dry than ordinary, from the mere length of time employed since it was taken from the bath.

The picture being cleanad perfectly from the hypo, may have little of a negative character in it ; but now by freely passing over it a portion,- according to the size of your plate, of a mixture composed of 2 drachms of the bichloride of mercury, 2 drachms of chloride of am- monia, dissolved in 10 ounces of common water, a great change takes place, and a blueish tint will come over it. Wash it quickly and perfectly again, and pour over at once a solution of hyposulphate of soda, 5 grains to the ounce of water. The most intense black is now produced ; and, the negative being washed and varnished as other negatives, the plate is finished, and is perfectly perma- nent, from which an unlimited number of positives can be taken, without any deterioration. In offering these re- marks, I am well aware that, lo all experienced photo- graphers, they ought to be well known ; but, as is evident from the correspondence which leads me to make this communication, success has not always attended their endeavours. In conclusion, let me add, that this process is applicable to the production of photographic copies, not merely of MSS. on vellum and paper, but of engrav- ings, medals, seals, oil-paintings, and, in short, of all similar objects. Any of your antiquarian readers, possess- ing objects of interest, of which they may desire copies, I shall be happy at all times to advise as to the most ready means of accomplishing their wishes.

HUGH W. DIAMOND.

Wandsworth.

[This valuable communication from DR. DIAMOND, the importance of which can hardly be exaggerated, was ac- companied by a photograph, representing on one sheet copies of four documents of very different dates and condition, both as respects the colour of the parchments, and the fading of the ink all taken at the same time. The first is of the date of Henry VII. ; the second of Henry VIII. ; the third of Edward VI. (the parchment of which is as dark a brown as parchment can well be) ; the last is a document dated in the reign of Elizabeth. Nothing can be more perfect than these copies. It is al- most difficult to believe that they are copies, and not ori- ginal documents. But that our readers may form their own judgment on this point, the photograph is left for in- spection at the office in Fleet Street.

Since the above was written, we have received a note from Du. DIAMOND, announcing that he has just made a most successful copy of a page of MS., in which the red, gold, and blue are all of the proper degree of tint. ED. "N.&Q."]