1403
early photography’s ‘best sellers’ with sales exceed-
ing nine thousand copies over a fi fteen-year period in
America alone. Several thousand more copies were sold
in Britain, and yet more in three Spanish-language edi-
tions. It was the comprehensive nature of the book, and
the accessibility of Towler’s text, which attracted such
signifi cant sales. In nine editions, new discoveries and
inventions were appended as they were introduced, and
by the 1879 edition, the 351 pages of the fi rst edition
had swelled to 599. He went on to write several other
important books and manuals on photography, but none
captured the imagination, or achieved the sales enjoyed
by The Silver Sunbeam. Towler edited Humphreys Jour-
nal of Photography from 1864 until 1867.
Other publications included essays on dry plate pro-
cesses (1865), photography on porcelain (1865), and the
production of high quality prints (1866, 1870), and sev-
eral translations of works from the original German.
From 1882 until 1886 he served as US Consul in
Trinidad.
John Hannavy
TOWNSHEND, CHAUNCY HARE
(1798–1868)
British art collector, writer, and poet
Townshend was born on 20 April 1978 at Busbridge
Hall, Godalming, England, the only son of a landed
gentleman, Henry Hare Townsend and his wife, Char-
lotte. (Chauncy Hare Townshend added the letter ‘h’ to
the family surname in 1827 when he succeeded to the
family estates.) From an early age Townshend was en-
couraged to take an interest in the arts. He was educated
at Eton College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he
won the Chancellor’s medal for his poem Jerusalem. In
1826 he married Eliza Frances Norcott.
Townshend took holy orders but felt unable to pursue
this vocation due to a nervous complaint –a combina-
tion of melancholia and hypochondria to which he suc-
cumbed during the 1820s or 30s—that was to plague him
for the rest of his life. However, his passion for travel
and collecting, his contacts with distinguished friends,
and his enormous personal wealth allowed him to lead
an active and fascinating life. The experience of Town-
shend’s journeys in Britain fed into his fi rst published
prose work, A Descriptive Tour in Scotland (1840). He
was an accomplished amateur painter and draughtsman,
musician and composer and an ardent advocate of mes-
merism, aspects of which are now known as hypnotism.
He published Facts in Mesmerism (1840) and Mesmer-
ism Proved True (1854) and also practised the technique
on others. He moved in the highest social and literary
circles in London hosting musical evenings at his house
at 21 Norfolk Street, (now Dunraven Street) looking on
to Hyde Park. Among the many guests were the poet
Laureate Robert Southey and the novelist Wilkie Col-
lins, much of whose description of “Mr. Fairlie” in The
Woman in White is modelled on Townshend. Charles
Dickens is said to have taken Townshend as his inspi-
ration for the character of ‘Cousin Feenix’ in Dombey
and Son and became a close friend, dedicating Great
Expectations to him. He acted as literary executor after
Townshend’s death and edited his posthumous Religious
Opinions (1869). After separating legally from his wife
in 1843, Townshend spent his winters in Switzerland at
his villa near Lausanne on the Lake of Geneva.
Townshend’s wide-ranging interests in the 1840s and
50s informed his taste in his large, eclectic collection of
pictures including oil paintings, watercolours, prints and
photographs. Many of his acquisitions adorned the walls
of his houses or would have been kept in portfolios and
presses for viewing. He remains one of the few iden-
tifi able British private collectors of early photographs,
on any signifi cant scale, apart from Albert, the Prince
Consort. After his death in London on 25 February
1868, The Times described Townshend as “a collector
of rare judgement and exquisite taste.” A bequest of
porcelain, glass, watches, geological specimens, curios
and the bulk of his library was made to the Museum at
Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, near his country estates. The
bequest to the South Kensington Museum (later renamed
the Victoria and Albert Museum) was instigated at the
suggestion of one of the curators, G.F. Duncombe, who
put the idea to Townshend while accompanying him on
a tour of the Museum. This bequest contained some of
the fi nest treasures in his remarkable collection includ-
ing photographs, paintings, prints, drawings, books,
gemstones, coins, cameos and intaglios. This bequest
ensured the rare survival of a key group of art photo-
graphs from a 19th century private collection.
An inventory of his collection made at his London
home shortly after his death (V&A Archive) reveals how
Townshend grouped and housed his collection. It also
gives a valuable insight into his taste in photography
that encompassed many of the major French and Brit-
ish names of the 1850s. He had visited the Exposition
Universelle, Paris, 1855 and may have noticed works
by Gustave Le Gray and André Giroux there but could
have purchased fi ne photographs such as these at Lon-
don dealers such as Murray and Heath. Townshend’s
photographs fall into three groups: those he kept care-
fully housed in presses also containing his watercolours
and print collection old master etchings and engravings,
(including Rembrandt) topographical and architectural
views, drawings, zoological plates and leaves of dried
plants; books illustrated by photographs which were
shelved with the other books of his library; and stereo-
scopic photographs and daguerreotypes kept in cases
in the “Front Room” or study. The stereographs and