Mount Auburn Cemetery

Edinburgh 28th Feby. 1845

Sir,

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your favour of the 14th Dec. last together with the lithographic outlines of the cemetery chapel windows, which were forwarded to me about the middle of last month. I feel highly gratified by the proof which your letter affords of the estimation in which my professional skill is held by you, and I have endeavoured to evince my sense of the value of your good opinion by the thought which I have bestowed on a series of designs which shall be shortly forwarded. Your lithographic outlines I have put in to the hands of Messrs Ballantine and Allan of this city who have been selected by the Royal Commission of the Fine Arts to furnish the painted glass for the principal portions of the New Houses of Parliament. These Gentlemen thus placed at the head of their profession, are intimate friends of mine and they are now engaged under my instructions in making the designs you require. I have requested them to forward you also an estimate of the cost of executing these designs in painted glass in the best manner, and I would strongly advise you to commit the matter intirely [sic] to them. Their work in brilliancy and harmony of colour equals the best specimens of the antique, and far excells them in symmetrical proportion, as well as in accurate drawing. No water coloured sketch can convey a correct idea of the effect of painted ^glass. Neither can

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[stamp: L MRB]

By first Steamer Packet

Doctor Jacob Bigelow Boston United States America

[stamp; overlaying first line of address PAID at EDINB. F MAR 1 1845]

[seal: stamped red wax]

42 George Street Edinburgh

21st April 1845

Jacob Bigelow Esq M D

Sir

In accordance with the desire of Mr Hay, whose opinion you had requested, as to the most advisable mode, of colouring the Glass for the Windows of the Auburn Cemetry [sic] Chapel, we now enclose you, a series of designs, together with estimates for the execution of the work, and shall feel happy if they meet your approval..

Our experience in Glass Painting has been considerable. We have studied carefully the best specimens of the Antique, in this country and on the Continent, and feel confident, that we can now produce windows, equally durable & brilliant, with the best of those specimens, and more in accordance with the principle of harmony in form and colour.

Our designs and specimens, for the windows of the New House of Lords, at Westminster, have been approved of by the Royal Commission on the Fine Arts, and we are anxious to extend our reputation still further. We have therefore prepared the following Estimates, at the lowest remunerating rates, and should feel exceedingly delighted, to have the honour, and the advantage, through your means, of sending a specimen of our Art to your interesting country.-- You are no doubt aware that it is impossible to convey by a water coloured drawing, any idea of the effect of such designs, when properly executed in Glass, and ^that^ any attempt to transmit in writing instructions in Glass Painting is useless for any practical purpose.--

We may state that our Painted Glass is not executed on large Sheets, but like that of the Ancients is a species of Mosaic work -- For example, the central compartment of the Rose window, would be composed of upwards of one thousand separate pieces of Glass, the colour of which is in the body of the material, not merely fused on the surface -- This mode produces the most brilliant effect, is much stronger than any other and when any repair is required small pieces are easily inserted

(Should

lights of the upper compartments, exactly as they ^^now stand in your designs. But the great circular space in this window I wish filled, not with the resurrection piece in your design, but with an allegorical representation of Death, of which I send you a design, in the roll, copied mainly from Thorwaldsens Bas relief of Night, representing a winged sleeping female and two infants. It is the most beautiful & appropriate thing I ever saw have seen.

In the Rose window you will substitute in the centre a design which is also inclosed in the roll, and which is allegorical of Immortality. It is copied from the two cherubs in Raphaels Madonna del Sisto, who are here represented as gazing upwards into a light or glory, which proceeds from an invisible source. Raphaels picture is at Dresden. Some parts of it, especially the cherub wings, are highly colored. If you have good copies in Edinburgh, please to imitate them, paying all attention to keep the expression of the faces.

Allow me to suggest an opinion that the representation of Death in the northern window should be executed in cold or sombre tints; that of Immortality which fronts the sun, should be in bright & dazzling colors. The field, or back ground I leave to be managed by your own judgement

42 George Street Edinburgh 2^nd July 1845

Jacob Bigelow Esq^re

Sir,

We beg leave to acknowledge receipt of your communication of the 14^th ult^a, and feel exceedingly gratified by the perusal of its contents.--

We shall begin to Work immediately on the receipt of the shapes or templets, and shall take care to have it finished and dispatched to your Agents in Liverpool, on or before the first day of March next.

Thorwaldsen's Night and Raphaels Madonna are both known to us, and there is an excellent copy of the latter in the possession of a Gentleman here, to which we have access. The excellent taste shown in the selection of such subjects, as well as in their adaptation to the purpose intended, is fully appreciated by us. We feel the importance of the Work committed to us, and you may rely upon our best exertions being used to treat the subjects Artistically.

We have noted carefully, and understand clearly, all the alterations in the shapes alluded to in your letter, and if upon the arrival of these, there be any point which we do not clearly understand we shall write you. The other instructions contained in your communications shall be rigidly adhered to. We trust that you have returned our design in the paper parcel, if not please do immediately, else we shall not know well how to proceed with the foliated ornament not having kept

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