ABSTRACT
I wrote to you in my last concerning Busts. I suppose those at the Academy are less hackney'd & better in General than the Plaisters Shop can furnish us with; besides it will sound better to say - This is from the Academy, taken from an Original in the Gallery of &c &c than to say, we had it from Flaxman3 & I suppose you must have these in moulds or not at all; so we must be content to have them as we can, & as Oliver,4 as a plaister figure maker, in selling the moulds, transfers his business likewise to us he must be pd handsomely for them. I shod like to keep one hand constantly at Busts if you could dispose of them.5 The Marquis of Rockingham6 has some divine Busts, one you may remember is actually
speaking. If he wod lend you some either to mold in Town or send down here. I think M. Olivers method is to take a mold, then prepare that mould & cast a plaister one out of it, from which he makes what shod be a working mould for us, & this long process makes them come so dear. When he takes any casts from Busts for us, let us have the original mould, & that shod not often be more than from 10.6 to a Guinea, & pay him well too.
