Dear Henry
I suppose all the flowers are over by the shortness of your letter I want to know what you are doing in the garden – whether Mr Harrison <1> is congédié <2> – & what new treasures may have tumbled out of the wall.
What a pity it is the Arts are so expensive! I cannot afford to buy Crivelli’s <3> Zingara but I think I shall commission Wallis <4> to copy it whenever he goes to Naples & the marriage of St Catherine – & if ever he goes to Naples Dresden to copy the Magdalen & the Agar.
The people who spoil the market here are the riches sans goût <5> who [illegible] abound – fortunately they do not take off the best pictures, but by paying dear for bad ones, they raise the price of the good they leave behind for no artist of any discernment likes to sell what he knows to be an original for 20 louis when he has seen his neighbour sell a copy of the same, or what is worse, a counterfeit, for 100. A gent. the other day paid 400£ for all the hash selling under the cloisters at Sa Maria Novella for the sake of one carlino which Mr Salter undertakes to prove a counterfeit. The same Gent. bought a Poussin on which has large bets [sic] – & on cleaning, discovered a man riding with his face backwards. This he calls a Pentimento! <6>
Another took me to see a Borgos<7> undoubted – because he shewed me in the corner AB. 1500 – & was wonderfully disappointed when I convinced him it was a Pandolfo – because in 1500 people did not dress in Kevenhullers <8> & Roquelaures <9> – nor did Borg. live in 1500 – so the next day he got a painter to paint out date & letters & all – the very same I believe who had painted it in. I have got some prizes now in treaty but I must soon conclude for the demand is so great the price rises every day – After Milan Venice Genoa & Bologna I must confess the florentines to be the fairest dealers after all. & I think on the whole the best market if you want to see a variety. If Kit <10> fancys [sic] pictures I can shew him 100s –
Mrs Morse enquires tenderly after Horatia <11> –
Henry
Notes:
1. This particular Harrison has not been identified but was apparently a gardener at Lacock.
2. Dismissed.
3. Art dealer selling Correggio’s painting The Madonna Reposing, also known as La Zingarella. [See Doc. No: 01600, and Doc. No: 01454].
4. Probably George Augustus Wallis (1770-1847), Scottish born painter resident in Florence who also was an art dealer and served as a representative of art dealers.
5. Wealthy with no taste.
6. Repentance, regret.
7. Written off the edge of page.
8. A type of cocked hat worn in the mid-18th century.
9. A knee-length cloak (late 18th–early 19th centuries).
10. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
11. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.