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Letter about the
Statues on Museum
from
Wm Couper

4 Via Dante Da Castiglione,
Florence, Italy

Dear Mrs. Stanford

I have to acknowledge with kindest
thanks the receipt of your highly valued
letters of the 6th and 8th [illegible]: and also the draft for
$15.00 from Mr. Lathrop, which has been
duly acknowledged to him.

With regard to giving you a definite answer
to the questions asked about the statues for
the Art Museum, I must confess myself
puzzled. In the first place, I cannot draw
an exact idea of the necessary height of each
statue from simply the measures of the
building mentioned in your letter
without knowing something of its
general form besides its being square.

Then again, each figure must be
modelled to suit the place upon which
it is to stand and modelled the size the
marble is to be. When this is taken into
consideration and the time required for
the cutting of a figure which will cover
at least eight or nine months, saying
nothing of the six weeks required for the
study of each sketch for the statues, it will
be impossible for any one to have the work
completed by next spring. Of course the
correct heights of the figures can be gotten from
the Architect and a photograph of the plan
of the building would be all that is necessary
to overcome the first obstacle.

Now to the cheap Sculptor! I am obliged
to say I do not know anyone whom I
could take the responsibility of recom-
mending even at a much higher figure
than you mention, for cheap work
means bad work naturally, and when