Photograph (Salted Paper Print) of Sir David Brewster, Probably by Robert Adamson, 1843

In MS Gunther 10, f.159v, top, Hartwell House commonplace book, volume 2. Salted paper print from a calotype negative of Sir David Brewster, seated half length, facing front but his body slightly to left. Reddish brown at centre, but discoloured to slightly greenish sepia over most of its surface due to the adhesive; face and hair are white, and the features very clear. Several ink stains. Unusually for a calotype, it has a white border; an intrinsic negative number ending '5' can be seen top left. Captioned (beneath, on the album page) 'Sir David Brewster.'. The relatively straightforward pose (compared to the more painterly poses favoured by Hill) and the absence of this image from the acknowledged corpus of Hill and Adamson's work (unlike the two companion photographs on the same and facing pages), suggests that it may have been taken by Robert Adamson in the short period he practised as a portrait photographer before his collaboration with Hill commenced; its date would thus be 1843. It belonged to Brewster, and was given to John Lee for his commonplace book along with the two others. Brewster and his wife visited Hartwell House from October 18 to 21, 1851, and are among the visitors who sign f.156v of the volume.

For fuller descriptive and historical commentary see narratives.