Richard Lord Edgcumbe,
Controller of his MAJESTY’S Household.
My LORD,
I Should be afraid to offer you the following Treatise if I could
not flatter myself with the hope that its intrinsic Merit, and the
Intention it was writ in, would in your noble and generous Mind
counterbalance the Defects and Improprieties of Language, of which, as
almost unavoidable to a Foreigner, it must of course be guilty of.
The subject I present you with is known to you long ago; you saw the
first Essays and Experiments in Encaustic; You was pleased to approve
of them, and to express some Satisfaction at the least Picture
executed in this manner. With what greater Advantage could I usher
this new Invention into the World, than dedicating it to You; to make
it known that the GREATEST PATRON of Arts, and the best Judge of the
Merits of Painting approved of it?--Count CAYLUS invented it; under the
Sanction of your Lordship’s Name I offer it to the Public, and with a
grateful Sense for all the Favours and Kindness You have at all Times
shewn towards me.