He frequently went to town for the express purpose of reading and making drawings of rare works in metal in the British Museum, sending the results down to Soho. When rare objects of art were offered for sale, he endeavoured to secure them. “I bid five guineas,” he wrote his partner on one occasion, “for the Duke of Marlborough’s great blue vase, but it sold for ten.... I bought two bronzed figures, which are sent herewith.” He borrowed antique candlesticks, vases, and articles in metal from the Queen and from various members of the nobility. “I wish Mr. Eginton,” he wrote, “would take good casts from the Hercules and the Hydra, and then let it be well gilt and returned with the seven vases; for ’tis the Queen’s. I perceive we shall want many such figures, and therefore we should omit no opportunity of taking good casts.” The Duke of Northumberland lent Boulton many of his most highly-prized articles for imitation by his workmen. Among his other liberal helpers in the same way, we find the Duke of Richmond, Lord Shelburne, and the Earl of Dartmouth. The Duke gave him an introduction to Horace Walpole, for the purpose of enabling him to visit and examine the art treasures of Strawberry Hill. “The vases,” said he, in writing to Boulton, “are, in my opinion, better worth your seeing than anything in England, and I wish you would have exact drawings of them taken, as I may very possibly like to have them copied by you.” Lord Shelburne’s opinion of Boulton may be gathered from his letter to Mr. Adams, the architect, in which he said:--“Mr. Boulton is the most enterprising man in different ways in Birmingham, and is very desirous of cultivating Mr. Adams’s taste in his productions, and has bought his Dioclesian by Lord Shelburne’s advice.” Boulton, however, did not confine himself to England; he searched the Continent over for the best specimens of handicraft as models for imitation; and when he found them he strove to equal, if not to excel them in style and quality. He sent his agent, Mr. Wendler, on a special mission of this sort, to Venice, Rome, and other Italian cities, to purchase for him the best specimens of metal-work, and obtain for him designs of various ornaments--vases, cameos, intaglios, and statuary. On one occasion we find Wendler sending him 456 prints, Boulton acknowledging that they will prove exceedingly useful for the purposes of his manufacture. At the same time, Fothergill was travelling through France and Germany with a like object, while he was also establishing new connexions with a view to extended trade.[100]