Sept^r –
Florence

Dear Henry

I have decided on taking for you the Ezekiel ^<1> you saw not only because it is the one you saw & approved but because with the exception of the fresher colouring, it is an exact copy – the other was a study done by Colzi ^<2> to see what the picture would have been, with some little defects of drawing which all connoisseurs are agreed upon, corrected, & then coloured & varnished to imitate the worn state in which the original is at present. M^r Irvine says he has really succeeded in it but I would not venture to substitute it for the picture you saw, tho I give Colzi credit for having done it. As to the insurance M^r Irvine says that is best done in England & is effected on the bill of lading when it arrives – it shall be sent you & as the whole package will be insured mine & yours together you will be so good as to pay for me & we will settle the acc^t after with the pictures.

I shall soon go to Venice & perhaps to Trieste – & Pola.

Y^r Aff^te
W T H F S

Anson ^<3> is just going to Egypt in M^r Baring’s ^<4> yacht – with Capt Rob^ts R.N.^<5> an excellent drawer & surveyor who has been a good deal in the East

Henry Talbot Esq
31 Sackville Street
London

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Notes:

1. Possibly a copy of Raphael’s Vision of Ezekiel (in the Pitti Palace). [See Doc. No: 01450].

2. One of the painters who copied Renaissance paintings for connoisseurs.

3. Thomas William Anson, 1^st Earl of Lichfield (1795–1854).

4. Alexander Baring, 1^st Baron Ashburton (1774–1848), financier & statesman.

5. Probably Capt Daniel Roberts (1789-1869), who also designed yachts for Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley.