Effigy of Sir W. Scott's favourite dog Maida, by the side of the hall door at Abbotsford (Verso)

In October 1844, on completing a scientific meeting in the north of England, William Henry Fox Talbot continued on to Scotland with Nicolaas Henneman, his former assistant who was now the proprietor of the Reading Establishment, the first photographic printing firm, with the intention of making images for a new book. Unlike The Pencil of Nature (1844-46), which contained a variety of photographs and was sold freely through booksellers, Sun Pictures in Scotland was to illustrate the wildly popular works of the late Sir Walter Scott and to be sold only by subscription. Talbot and Henneman visited the bard’s home on their return journey; the exact date is known because Talbot signed the guest register, which is still preserved at Abbotsford.

Maida, a grand Scottish deerhound, was Scott’s favorite dog. When the stately and aged hound died in 1824, he was buried outside the door to Abbotsford, underneath the sculpture made in his image. The Latin inscription can be translated as “O, Maida, you sleep under the stone effigy of Maida.” The memorial was a practical as well as aesthetic addition, for it served as a block for mounting a horse. The statue does not stand out with the purity the photograph implies, however. In order to reduce the visual confusion, Talbot temporarily draped a piece of dark cloth behind the sculpture to keep its details from blending in with the courtyard.

After returning to England, Talbot turned the Scottish negatives over to Henneman to make prints for the book. Either Henneman or one of his assistants had some stray chemicals on his skin, for the fingerprints of the person who made this particular plate are clearly preserved.

Adapted from Larry Schaaf, William Henry Fox Talbot, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2002), 88. ©2002 J. Paul Getty Trust.