330 THE WEDGWOODS. 



some charming groups, which. Lady Diana Beauclerk and Lady 

 Templetoun, whose exquisite taste is universally acknowledged, 

 have honoured me with the liberty of copying from their designs. 

 The Portland Yase, late Barberini, for the acquisition of which to 

 this country the artists are 30 much obliged to their well-known 

 benefactor, Sir William Hamilton, will furnish a noble addition, 

 and I cannot sufficiently express my obligation to his Grace the 

 Duke of Portland, for entrusting this inestimable jewel to my care, 

 and continuing it so long more than twelve months in my hands, 

 without which it would have been impossible to do any tolerable 

 justice to this rare work of art. I have now some reason to natter 

 myself with the hope of producing, in a short time, a copy which 

 will not be unworthy the public notice. I wish likewise to pay 

 my grateful acknowledgments to the Marquis of Lansdowne, for 

 the liberty of taking moulds from a suite of dancing nymphs, and 

 other beautiful figures, modelled in Italy from the paintings found 

 in Herculaneum, and to the Duke of Marlborough, for a cast from 

 the exquisite gem in His Grace's collection, the Marriage of Cupid 

 and Psyche. The Herculaneum figures are all executed in the 

 basaltes, and only three or four of them have as yet been adapted 

 to the jasper of two colours ; the Marlborough gem has been made 

 in the jasper composition for some time, but not till very lately in 

 the degree of perfection I wished for. I am likewise under par- 

 ticular obligations to Lady Margaret Pordyce, Lady Anne Lindsey, 

 Mrs. Montague, Mrs. Crew, and Miss Emma Crew, to his Grace the 

 Duke of Montague, Lord Besborough, Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, 

 Sir Joshua Eeynolds, Sir William Chambers, Mr. West, Mr. Astle, 

 and many others of the nobility, connoisseurs, and principal artists 

 of this kingdom, for their kind and valuable assistance in bringing 

 these works to that degree of perfection, and that notice with the 

 public, which they at present possess. With such ample and liberal 

 assistance, I may, perhaps, be allowed to hope that the articles of 

 this class may with propriety have a place among the finest orna- 

 ments which the arts of the present age have produced, and that no 

 cameos, medallions, or bas-reliefs, of equal beauty, magnitude, and 

 durability, or so highly finished, have ever before been offered to 

 the public. These bas-reliefs, chiefly in the jasper of two colours, 

 are applied as cabinet pictures, or for ornamenting cabinets, book- 

 cases, writing tables, in the composition of a great variety of 

 chimney-pieces, and other ornamental works. With what effect 

 they are thus applied, may be seen in the houses of many of the 

 first nobility and gentry in the kingdom." 



