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(Signed ‘Phillips & Co.’ The subscription appears to indicate Phillips and his family rather than a business partnership.)

(Attribution and and identification of original from National Portrait Gallery catalogue (NPG D22586).)

Transcript

Athenæum June 9th 1817.

My Dear Sir.

I am unwilling to lose any time in answering your obliging letter of the 2nd Inst., and in assuring you that I shall have great pleasure in executing your Commissions to the best of my ability;―the first relative to Mr Roscoe’s Catalogues I shall have no difficulty, as the three are in this Library with the prices and purchasers† names to each, if you will have the goodness to send me yours I will make them as complete as possible.―There is only one engraved portrait of Mr Roscoe, and that by no means a good one, there is also a small bust which is much worse, the best likeness is a terracotta Medallion, about nine inches in diameter, and shewing the head and neck in profile, it was executed by a person of the name of Gibson in this town, and owing to a similar cause is nearly as rare as the Miller halfpenny, one is offered me for a guinea, and if you wish me to purchase it I will thank you to inform me. I shall be very happy to contribute all in my power to your stock of Autographs, and will lose no opportunity of doing so. I have not been so fortunate as to see Mr Martin since I was favoured with your letter, but will mention it to him as soon as I see him.―I am very much obliged by your kind offer of Etchings and shall be very grateful for any you have to spare, which will serve either to illustrate my few works on Topography, or the Walls of my Parlour; should the excellent portraits by Mr Phillips be engraved I should be very happy to receive them. I have frequently regretted that the hasty manner in which I left Yarmouth, prevented my accepting the offer you so repeatedly made of giving me etchings, this regret however is now removed by your recent renewal of that offer.―I have had several interviews with Mr Roscoe, and every one has increased my respect for that estimable man, and I hardly know which to admire most in him, {1} the fortitude with which he bears the {2} deprivation of one of the finest collections in the possession of any individual, or that rigid sense of honour which influenced him in making so great a sacrifice. Mrs Burrell desires me to express her thanks united with mine for your kind congratulations and good wishes, and with best respects to Mrs Turner and family

I remain Dear Sir
Yours most respectfully
George Burrell

―――――

{1} Comma supplied. The preceding word is at the end of a line.

{2} Most of this word was torn away with the seal.

(Attribution from National Portrait Gallery catalogue (NPG D22586). Cf. O.13.12, No. 87a.)

(Undated. Turner has written ‘1st August 1817’ at the head.)