Mount Auburn Cemetery

it be expected that manufacturers of painted glass such as you describe those in your neighbourhood to be, will be qualified to execute the work from the drawing that will be sent you. I know that my friends here will furnish you with the windows at the lowest remunerating rate, and in the event of your employing them, I am convinced that these productions will prove equally creditable to your taste and their abilities.

Should anything, more in my own line, be required, such as, scrolls for the walls with illuminated mottos, which I generally do in oil painting and gilding upon a cloth or paper medium, and which can be easily and permanently fixed to the wall with white lead by any common painters, I shall be most happy to supply them.

Trusting the sketches which follow this will meet your approval, and apologizing for the delay which has occurred between your letter and my reply

I remain,

Sir,

Your Obliged and most obedt Servt_

D.R. Hay

P.S. I shall pay Messrs B & A: The Five pounds you were so good as remit for their trouble in preparing the sketch.

D.R.H.

to

Doctor Jacob Bigelow} ...M.D.} Boston}

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

Should you entrust the work to our care, we should guarantee that all the coloured glasses should be of the very finest quality, and that the workmanship should be equal to any other in Ancient or Modern Painted Glass. The pannels could be forwarded together with plans & written instructions, such as would enable any common Glazier to put them in -- Especial care would be taken that the Glass was packed in a way to warrant its safety -- Vessels leave Greenock every month for New York, the carriage would not form an important item and we could have the entire work finished within six or eight months from the time of its commencement.

Should you resolve upon employing us, it would ensure correctness if you would forward pasteboard or paper shapes, the exact daylight sizes of the various compartments. These templets or shapes must be numbered, and your lithograph drawings numbered to correspond -- The shapes of the long perpendicular compartments would only be required above the springs of the Arches with the exact length of the compartments below the springs of Arches marked --

We have only to add that Mr Hay has been consulted in the general arrangement and details of the designs, that he has expressed his unqualified approbation of both, and that should you honour us with an order to execute the work, our chief aim would be to render the Painted Glass Windows of your Chapel interesting and attractive -- We have the honour to be

Sir

Your obedient Servants

Ballantine & Allan