The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-09-21 00:00:00

WILL OPEN ON FRIDAY NEXT.

The Corporation of Liverpool having granted .the site of
the late OBSERVATORY, ST. JAMES'S VALK, a neat and
elegant Building has been erected thereon, in which the
PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS, the discovery of which
is ranked among the greatest scientific achievements of the
present age, will be in DAILY OPERATION.
THE PRICE FOR EACH PORTRAIT, INCLUDING
A FRAME, IS ONE GUINEA.
JOHN KELM, Manager.

Tile
Invention was recently introduced into England, at
the ROYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION, LONDON ; and
the following are a few extracts from the leading Journals
relating to its merits :

(From the Times.)

_ .
THE PHOTOGRA-PHIC MINIATURES.—The principle has
been so far perfected as to be almost incapable of further
improvement. The; novelty attendant upon the fact of
being furnished in the short space of five seconds with a
more correct miniature likeness than the most accom-
plished artist could paint on ivory, after days of laborious
study, coupled with the fineness of the weather, drew
together a host of curious fashionabh

s, at th

technic Institution, so many, indeed, that notwithstanding
the short period of time occupied in the operation, the room
was crowded for hours together, by. parties anxiously waiting
their turn. The apartment appropriated for the magical
process—for so it may be termed,-is welt calculated for the
object desired, being, on the highest story of the institution
From the roof, which is constructed of blue glass, of chow
a quarter of an inch thick, a very powerful light is obtained
and it is so ingeniously contrived as to revolve with the

n a portion of the room, nearly in the centre, an elevated
seat is placed, on which the party whose likeness is to be
taken sits, with his head reclined backwards. In this posi-
tion the sitter is told to look into a glass box, in an opposite
direction, about five from bins, i❑ which is placed the plate
to be impressed with the portrait. Having done so for a few
seconds, he descends, and in a few minutes afterwards a
likeness is presented to him. The likenesses which we saw
were admirable, and closely true to nature, beauties and de-

fortuities being alike exhibited ; therefore those who art
ashamed of their personal appearance had better keep front
the influence of photography. _

(From the Morning Chronicle.)

When we formerly described this process, the time requi-
site for taking a portrait was, generally speaking, about four
minutes ; but in consequence of the great improvements that
have been made, the time has been reduced to about five se-
conds on a clear day ; but during cloudy dull weather the
operation may require from a minute and a half to two mi-
nutes.

The portraits taken by this means are really extraordinary
as likenesses ; they are true to nature, for nature here is her
own delineator. The features are admirably marked out and
delineated, and the likenesses at first sight are so extraordi-
nary, that they are really startling. _ .

- --
(From the Morning Advertiser.)
PHOTOGRAPHIC LIKENESSES.—One of the most into
estin, sights it is possible to conceive is now attracti

_
crowds daily to the Polytechnic Institution, Regent-street.
The. patentee has christened it the " photographic mode of
taking likenesses." By this process, in the incredibly short
space of live seconds, the likeness of any individual is taken
down on a piece of metal, and the portrait is a perfect fac-
simile of the sitter. It is nature herself that is called in to
be the artist, and her performance is truly astonishini.7,
leaving immeasurably behind it everything that human skill
could effect.

(From the Morning Herald.)

PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.-We were present on Sa-
turday at the exhibition of the extraordinary process of
taking portraits by the reflecting apparatus, lately patented,
and now for the first time brought before the public. By the
photographic progress, perfect likenesses are taken, in the
short space of from ten to five and twenty seconds! We
say perfect, because the prepared plate on which the objects
is reflected must of necessity produce a perfect transcript of
that object. The operation, therefore, being thus unerring,
the fault of even the slightest failure in likeness can only
be attributable to the person sitting, which, of course,
may result from an assumed or unnatural position.
Although the exhibition has been only of a private character,
and of some two or three days, we understand that it has
been visited by all the parties possessing the privilege.
Among other influential personages present oa Saturday, we
noticed the Earl of Shaftesbury, who expressed his surprise
and gratification at the extraordinary invention.

(From the court Journal.)
PHOTOGRAPHIC LIKENESSES.—We attended yesterday
at the private view given by the patentee of the reflecting ap-
paratus at the Polytechnic Institution, by which photographic
likenesses are taken, and with the greatest accuracy, in a
period varying from five to twenty seconds. We were de-
lighhted with the exhibition.
(From the Morning Post.)

The patentee of this invention has adopted the principle of
giving these " reflections" to the public at a very moderate
cost, compared to the ordinary pr ice of miniatures, trusting
for his return to a general desire to possess them, which he
anticipates must be felt by all persons who would cherish tiro
best memento of a dear friend or relative.
(From the Courier.)
" Every line, every touch in the pictrue produced is from
the pencil of nature, without flattery or fallacy."

(From the Weekly Dispatch.)
PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.—We took an opportunity
on Monday cf again visiting the Polytechnic Institution, to
witness the astonishing manner in which portraits are taken
by the photographic process. The room was crowded with
nobility and gentry, among whom we noticed Lord Aber-
deen, anti several other persons of rank, each of whom, in
the warmest terms, expressed their delight and astonishment
at the rapidity with which the portraits of different gentle-
men were taken, and the extreme fidelity in the execution.
It is, in fact, impossible for the portraits to be any thing
short of a complete copy of nature.
(From the Observer.)
PuoTooanen IC PORTRAITS.—The appearance of the
miniature thus produced is that of a mezzotint engraving,
the likeness being no question of opinion, but a plain matter
of fact, for nature in this, as in other similar operations,
makes "no mistake." There is such subtilty of touch and
tone in the likeness as might fill a Vandyke or a Lawrence
at once with delight and despair. Altogether this is a most
wonderful and extraordinary exhibition. Those who in por-
traiture arc fond of being " flattered," will certainly not
patronise the photographic method of taking likenesses; but,
ou the other hand, they who want the real thing, and we
presume them to be the majority, will unquestionably spend
a guinea with great willingness in the production of a minia-
ture portrait which their fathers and mothers, wives, sisters,
and brothers may " swear to." Separate rooms are also
appropriated to ladies and gentlemen, and a female attendant
waits upon the former to assist in arranging the dress so CS
to produce the most desirable pictorial effect.
(From the Naval and Military Gazette.)
PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.—For some time it was
doubted whether Photography could ever he brought to
operate satisfactorily on the human face and form, aoa(s:
d to
enable the artist to take an unerring and
effective
likeness,
the slightest motion inevitably destroyingthe.
epxlctpeure in it,
inients,
progrees. Ingenuity, perseverance, d
have at length completely triumpheadnovrer:and
miniature portraits, infallibly faithful, are repeated
te
diffiCtiltv ;
now taken, from a
saietcttoirndginogftofrtoilitel
ifilitt)een,t,litytowtelitilts.econds ; the time varying
e /Ifessenger.)
(-141" c" 134*.b...Y. IA TIME PICTURES.- -It iS
EXTRAORDINARY FACT._
dividual who is the sitter. It is
bodily and personally the in the most accurate looking
as much so, as he sees that the lehotographic likeness
glass, but with this difference,
wre removed from the surface of the
mirrendered perpetual. is an everlasting memo-
rial is taken—and tine
is the image as
the
rat can be given to those who 1
I! cherish his memory when dead. It is
io•ofr,
haen and zzin?d,t,
►
which not only saves the sitter from the tedium
of the same position for many an hour fur his
ioifkebneeinaga,-(xfor this is accomplished in the sixth part of a ini-
;iuto—but it affords to artists themselves the surest guide
fur copying other likenesses, whether in miniature, or in oil
paintings as large us life.
Specimens may be seen, and Orders received, at Mr. L;-:
CRY'S REPOSITORY OF ARTS, 100, 130U-StreCt.