The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-11 00:00:00

(From the Times.)

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC 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 fashionables, at the Poly.
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 well calculated for the
object desired, being on the highest story of the institution.
From the roof, which is constructed of blue glass, of about
a quarter of an inch thick, a very powerful light is obtained,
and it is so ingeniously contrived as to revolve with the sun.
In 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 him, in 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-
formities being alike exhibited ; therefore those who are
ashamed of their personal appearance had better keep from
the influence of photography.
(From the Horning 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
',een visited by all the parties possessing the privilege.
Among other influential personages present on Saturdey, we
noticed the Earl of Shaftesbury, who expressed his surprise
and gratification at the extraordinary invention.
(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 price 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 the
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 Bell's Weekly Messenger.)
EXTRAORDIN ARY FACT.—MINIATURE PICTURES.—It is
bodily and personally the individual who is the sitter. It is
as much so, as he sees himself in the most accurate looking
glass, but with this difference, that the Photographic likeness
is the image as if it were removed from the surface of the
mirror, and rendered perpetual. It is an everlasting memo-
rial of the man at the moment it is taken--and therefore the
most precious gift that can be given to those who love him
while living, and will cherish his memory when dead. It is
a discovery, which not only saves the sitter from the tedium
of being fixed in the same position for many an hour for his
likeness, (for this is accomplished in the sixth part of a mi-
nute)—but it affords to artists themselves the surest 01
for copying other likenesses, whether in miniature, or 10 "1
paintings as large as life.

(From the Weekly Dispatch.)
tunit
aor
PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.—We took an OPr-.
to
on Monday cf again visiting the Polytechnic Institution,
th
witness the astonishing manner in which takenportraritosweewi
by the photographic process. The room
nobility and gentry, hof whom, in
deen, and several other, persons of rank,
each
astonishment
among whom we novitiaccsecleL
the warmest terms, expressed their delight of and
gentle-
ord Aber-
at the rapidity with which the portraits.
in the execution.
men were taken, and the extreme fidelity
•
) thing
It is, in fact, impossible for the portraits to be an
short of a complete copy of nature.
(From the Obserre ,
The r.
appearance of the
PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT:i
of a mezzotint engraving,
miniature thus produced is tbo
f opinion, but a plain matter
the likeness being no question, in
other similar operations,
of fact, for nature in this, ae .5
i such subtilty of touch and
makes "no mistake." 1.176 n a Vandyke or a Lawl • • enct:. tone in the likeness as wig,
air. Alto ether this • ier is a most
at once with delight and dersyPexhibition. Those who •
in por-
traiture and extraordilinag
, " flattered," will .
certainly not
arc fond
, ~°,frabp-iiie method of takin lik
gl epesses; but,
patronise the Pn°r-th'ey who want the rea thing and we
on the other bapbe
the majority, will un • 'I
them to .... , ; questtonabq spend
presume
with great willingness in the production f • *
o a minis-
a guinea ;,-bich their fathers and mothers, wives, sisters,
lure portrait ,
may
" swear to." Separate
rooms are also
and brothers may
; „ed ladies and gentlem
wants
en, and a female attendant
former t • • •
o assist in ar •
waits upon the ranging the stress so as
to produce the most desirable pictorial effect.
(From the Naval and
,11 1 ?7.
tau Gazette.)
PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.—For some time it was
doubted whether Photography could ever be
brought
to
operate satisfactorily on the human face
and form, so as to
enable the artist to take an u • nerring and effective likeness,
the slightest motion inevitably destroying the picture in its
progrees. Ingenuity, perseverance, and P ' . '
e, repeated experiments,
have at length completely triumphed over the difficulty ; and
miniature portraits,•
infallibly faithful, are now taken, from a
sittting of from five to twenty seconds ; the time varying
according tie the intensity of light.
(From the Court Journal.)
PHOTOGRAPHIC LIKENESS/is.—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 varyius from five to twaety seconds. We were tie-
liphhted wrth the ectliihition.