London stock, so far as related to the partnership of Messrs. Wedgwood and Bentley, was sold at Christie's, the sale occupying twelve days. And here, at the close of Bentley's life, let me introduce one or two of his letters, to show the care he bestowed on the details of the business in which he had become a partner, and the easy style of his correspondence. The first letter I shall give is a most interesting one, from its allusions to medallions, to the Empress of Russia's service, and other matters, and I therefore give it entire. It is addressed "To Mr. Josiah Wedgwood, at Etruria, near Newcastle, Staffordshire." MY DR. FRIEND, "London, July 30, 1774. "I have rec from Mr. Hodgson 20 India Bonds, which with Interest & Premium due upon them, amount to £2070 158. 11d., and have given him a Receipt for them on your Account. He says they are very safe security for 3 pr. Ct. "We have now almost no Company, & are busy arranging Things in our New House, & winding up the Bottoms of the Russian Service, which I hope will be all finish'd about the latter end of next Week. "I have very great Satisfaction in seeing all our Medallions, Bas-reliefs, &c., before me at once, a Sight I never could gratify myself with before. They can now be seen by others; & I shall now be able to tell what we have, & what we want, in a few Minutes. "This, I should think, must considerably promote the Sale of them. "I shall give you a List of what we want to compleat the Sets, &c., & I can now correct some Errors, and fill up Vacancies in the Catalogue against another Edition. "CLASS 1. "Mr. Wood writes for these Things; but we want a great many good Bracelets, when you have setled your Composition. "CLASS 2. "No. 1.-Continence of Scipio.-I know you wait for the Book, which I will send down with ye other Books at Chelsea. "I shall give you no more wants out of this Class at present, as we have not quite finish'd the Arrangement. "CLASS 3. "No. 1.-Hesiod, Black in a Gem Frame. 2.-Homer, do. 3.-Aristodemus, King of Messina.- Wanting in two Sets. 11.-Pithagoras. 18.-Socrates. 20.-Aristippus. The Names or Numbers on the Backs. "When you make these, I think you may make two or three Compleat Sets-in Gem Frames, Black, at 18d., and 2 or 3 sets unframed, at 1s. If your Moulds do not agree with our Catalogue, I shou'd be glad to know in what respect, & which are deficient, that Mould we may correct the Catalogue. I only doubt yr having any for the Head call'd Aristodemus; tho' you once had such a One. "CLASS 4. "We have never a compleat Set of the Roman History. We shou'd have half a dozen Sets made at once. The last is sold that was compleat. Please to take Care to send compleat Setts. "CLASS the 5th "I propose calling Heads of illustrious Greeks & Romans. Cyrus & Lysimachus, from Class XI., will be transfer'd to this. "You may make all the Heads in this Class, with or without Frames, in Black. 2 or 3 Sets. "CLASS y 6. "There are several Deficiencies in most of the Sizes of ye 12 Cæsars; but we have not got them all together yet. "We want several Sets framed at 1s. 6d. & 3s., in Gem Frames, in Black. Please to Number them carefully at the Back, according to the Catalogue. Many of the Heads have been number'd & mark'd wrong. "CLASS 7. "We have few of these; but this Class is so incompleat, it may be as well to defer a while making them. "CLASS the 8th. "We only want the following:-No. 27, Caius; 108, Adrian 2d; 133, Leo 8th; 138, Boniface 7th; 156, Benedict 10th; 160, Hilde brand; 249, Innocent 13th; 250, Benedict 13th; 251, Clement 12; 252, Benedict 14; 84, Ino 6th. Perhaps you have Moulds for some of these. Please to let us know which you really want; for we have had a great many from you since we were informed you had no more. "CLASS y 9th. "We may have two or three Setts of these as soon as you please. "Class 10th & 11th, with the Acc' of Stores I defer, as we are going to take an Account of Stock. "Severall of the Things mention'd above we want to compleat our Sets for the Rooms. With respect to the rest, we shall be more particular when we have got all our Affairs in a narrower Compass. "Mr. Hodgson informs Us, Cutler, Perryman, & Co., at Naples, are very safe. "Dr. Jebb has been with Us twice. For several Days Mrs. Bentley had no Pulse in One Arm, & very little in the other. She cou'd get no sleep in the Night, & was extremely low, so as often only to be relieved with a Flood of Tears. She is considerably better, & has some Pulse this Morning; and I hope the Doctor's Cordials, & kitchen Physick-for he orders her to live well-will soon restore her to Health & Spirits. Our Love to Mrs. W. "I am always yrs. most affy., of the 8 Small Statues in fine white jasper and.. in Black, without Frames, and some Sets of the Medallions, Cupid shaving his Bow, Diamede, &c., about 8, or as many as there are in a Set of the full relief; but not the Poor slender flat Lady coming out of a Bath. These will be wanted immediately; & we shou'd be glad to have some of them by the Coach, with some of those that were modell'd here, that Hackwood has been finishing. Pray make us a Pair of Herculaneum Nymphs, without Frames, out of the Moulds you have, as well & as soon as you can, and then Massey, or any of the Men that want Work, may be repairing them. Dr. Franklin, a Dozen or two very good, with Frames, both black & white. Fine Cleopatra's Heads, white, a dozen or two, 3s. 6d. each. "We want a match for Dr. Franklin, but do not stay for that. Send some as soon as possible. Your Carriers disappoint Us sadly. Socrates & Pittarus, in Pairs. Be good now, & let us have these Things as soon as possible. "Mr. Wedgwood desires his Duty to his good Lady. He is well, but extremely busy. A delightful Sale of Fossils is come to our relief, & will keep him here a while longer. "All our respects to Mrs. Wedgwood & the good Family. "Yrs. &c., "T. B." "On the other side my Dr. Friend will receive the Copy of an order from Mr. Westmacot, Architect, for a Chimney Piece, for Sr. Geo. Warren, which he desires may be executed with all possible dispatch. The Tablets & Blocks, the small Statues & Heads, are all to be in white, to be grounded with pale blue or laylock colour. In the Dimensions you will be as exact as possible; & I suppose it wou'd be better they shou'd be a little larger than a little less, as they are to go into Rabits." "Wanted for MR. WESTMACOT, with all possible dispatch. 5 by 41 1 by 1 oval in white. 21't by 11 Do. 2 White square Do. Do. Do. Messalina & another Empress to match her 2 33 by 2 White. CHAPTER XV. JOHN FLAXMAN-HIS CONNECTION WITH JOSIAH WEDGWOOD. -ORIGINAL BILLS AND LETTERS OF FLAXMAN'S.-MODE OF REDUCING MEDALLIONS, ETC., BY FIRING.-FLAXMAN'S MEDALLION PORTRAITS-HIS BAS-RELIEFS-HIS DESIGNS FOR SET OF CHESSMEN.-MR. MARJORIBANK'S COLLECTION. -FRIEZES AND PLAQUES.-FLAXMAN'S MODELS IN WAX. -JOSIAH WEDGWOOD ELECTED F.R.S.-SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS PAINTS PORTRAITS OF JOSIAH AND MRS. WEDGWOOD. -WRIGHT OF DERBY.-WEDGWOOD INVENTS A THERMOMETER FOR MEASURING HEAT.-CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. -INVENTION OF JASPER DIP." 66 I HAVE spoken in the last chapter of Flaxman's connection with Wedgwood. I am fortunately enabled, in connection with this interesting part of the memoir of the great Josiah, to introduce here, in their chronological place, some original bills of Flaxman's, which are extremely important and valuable as showing the prices then paid to that afterwards great artist, and as enabling, so far as they go, collectors to know which pieces were really the productions of his master mind. And here let me say that it is a fixed belief-a belief in which I fully share-that Flaxman for a time. modelled at Etruria, in one of the rooms shown in the view just given of the Black Works. The prices paid to him as a young man, it will be seen, were really handsome and liberal, when the time and other matters are considered. I have thought it well to illustrate, to some extent, these important and highly interesting bills, which I have the gratification of being the first to make public, so as to enable my readers to authenticate such examples as may be T |