Burlington; 21 June, 1872

Page 1

My dear M Marsh,

You see Monsr "Thompson has come again." I beg you will excuse him. On reading again your letter of the 20 May last, I was concerned to be assured that you could not give the necessary time (two days) to the matter of amending that model. Now, my dear Sir, this is a critical matter, and you must, if possible, excuse me for begging you to reconsider this conclusion, or provide through some agency for the accomplishment of the object; why it is nothing, as I consider it, but the transfer of the head of the original design of Stevenson to the model, which they have, and which, tho' in other respects not exactly as it should be, is, on the whole, respectable. But, again, I fear there is some confusion as to the modification. You say in your letter of the 21 ult. "After my letter of yesterday was posted, the [...] photograph was found. What these people call a "modification" is a paltry, vulgar & expressionless head" c Now Casoni & Isola, in theirs of the 13 June say "We received a letter from our firm the forepart of this week, and they therein informed us the change had been made in the head and they have been delayed in the work owing to the illness of M Marsh, who was unable to go and inspect the change." I am led to doubt if you have seen their modification. They do not speak of a photograph, and the quotation from your last letter describes exactly the head of the photograph of their model, which I sent you and I can't think they could make another as bad. I have heretofore sent you a photograph of the original design and a photograph of the model with the head of the original pasted on. I beg you to write soon, or let your Amanuensis do it, to Yours Very truly & Respectfully John N. Pomeroy

[The following appears the left margin of the page.] My wife joins me in our kindest remembrances to yourself & M Loomis is not expected to live many days. [The following appears at the top of the page.] Enclosed I send a photograph of the present model with a proper head attached.

[Photograph enclosed with letter shown with flap down on the left and with flap raised on the right.]

References in this letter:

The sculptor Peter Stephenson (1823-c.1860) of Boston specialized in cameos, portrait busts, and idealized figures.

Casoni & Isola was a company that dealt in statuary with offices in New York.

The lawyer, John Norton Pomeroy, (1792-1881) was a lawyer and prominent resident of Burlington, Vermont. He held several position in Vermont state government and was named chairman of the Statuary Committee to oversee the construction of the monument placed over the grave of Ethan Allen in Green Mount Cemetery in Burlington.