les plus humbles à V : M : imp : et celui de l'assurer que nous sommes avec le plus profond respect,
Madame,
de Votre Majesté Impériale,
lles très humbles
et très obéissants Serviteurs
Edmund Burke.
Edmond Malone.
Phelipe (sic) Metcalfe.
Londres, ce 17me Janvier, 1793.
The empress did not avail herself of this offer and Sir Joshua's collection of 411 pictures was sold by Christie in March 1795, when an interesting preface, signed by Burke, Malone and Metcalfe, was prefixed.
It set out that
"The Public has here a Collection, of great Extent and great Variety, of the Pictures of the most eminent Artists of former Ages, made by the most eminent Artist of the present Time. He chose these Pictures as Objects at once of Study and of Rivalship. No Person could do more than the great Man we have lately lost from the Funds of his own Genius; no Person ever endeavoured more to take Advantage of the Labours of others. He considered great Collections of the Works of Art in the Light of great Libraries; with this. Difference in favour of the former, that whilst they instruct they decorate. Indeed all his Passions, all his Tastes, all his Ideas of Employment, or of Relaxation from Employment, almost all his Accumulation, and all his Expenditure, had a Relation to his Art. In this Collection was vested a large, if not the largest Part of his Fortune; and he was not likely from Ignorance, Inattention, or want of practical or speculative Judgment, to make great Expences for Things of small or of uncertain Value.
The Whole of the within Collection were the entire Property of the late Sir Joshua Reynolds, as witness our Hands,
Edmund Burke
Edmond Malone
Philip Metcalfe
Executors."
When sir Joshua's collection "of ancient drawings, scarce prints and books of prints," were sold by H. Phillips
