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Mildred Barnes Bliss to Royall Tyler, October 3, 1930

Plaza Hotel,The Plaza Hotel, one of the first luxury hotels to be built in South America. The hotel was inagurated in 1909 and touted all rooms with central heating and telephone access. Buenos Aires
Oct. 3/1930Friday.

Prolonged cheers! Figurese que 97“Imagine that 97.” HC.P.1930.04.(O). See Max J. Friedländer, Die Sammlung Dr. Albert Figdor, Wien: Erster Teil, dritter Band: Gemälde (Vienna: Artaria & Co., 1930) no. 97, pl. 53. was the one picture we were sure of, as far as the catalogue reproduction permitted a definite opinion of any of them. We knew the Bosch would go beyond us and feared Strigel would, too, so your wire of purchase was a most welcome surprise. Bless you for going to Berlin & for your so kind cables & above all for being on earth at all! Dearest Growler,Mildred Barnes Bliss’s nickname for Royall Tyler. I may not write the magnum opus“Great work.” destined for you ere long to describe the ‘Revolution’The September 6, 1930, Argentine coup d'état, often known as the September Revolution by its supporters, involved the overthrow of the Argentine government of Hipólito Yrigoyen by forces loyal to General José Félix Uriburu. & res publicae“Public affair.” in general. But this must go to you now by airpost (only one per week) to tell you our great pleasure in the acquisition, our impatience to hear from you of its details—colour, condition, etc. (the lines are beautiful but the face modelling poor—no?) & of the sale & who got 41.Figdor Collection sale, Paul Cassirer Gallery, Berlin, September 29–30, 1930. See Max J. Friedländer, Die Sammlung Dr. Albert Figdor, Wien (Berlin: Cassirer, 1930), no. 41, pl. 27. Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch’s (ca. 1450–1516) painting, variously known as The Wayfarer, The Peddler, and The Prodigal Son, oil on panel, ca. 71.5 cm D, was acquired at the Figdor sale by the Amsterdam dealer Jacques Goudstikker (1897–1940), who sold the painting in 1931 to the Museum Boijmans van Beuninger, Rotterdam. Also I must tell you that the Instituto Cultural Argentino-Norte AmericanoThe Instituto Cultural Argentino–Norte Americano was created in Buenos Aires in the late 1920s as one of several Latin American pro-American cultural institutes that provided libraries, English classes, lectures, exhibits, and other activities in an attempt to promote appreciation of United States culture and foreign policy. The Blisses had enthusiastically encouraged the founding of the Institute in 1927 and funded the establishment of its non-profit American Book Shop in 1933. See J. Warshaw, “The Institute Cultural Argentino-Norteamericano,” Hispania 21, no. 4 (December 1938): 243. has written you to officially urge yr. visiting B.Aires for a series of lectures. You will remember not only our own plea but our telling you of the various audiences, subjects & languages which await yr. coming. We not only want you but need you & beg you to arrange with HambroRoyall Tyler worked as a European representative of the Hambros Bank, London, between 1928 and 1931. to send you here en mission between May 15 & Sept 15/1931 or this next month (Nov. 1930). This I assume to be unlikely but 1931 might be possible & we beseech you to answer the I.C.A.N.A. in such wise as to leave the door wide open. Of their financial arrgts. I know not, but assume they would pay all expenses aller & retour“Coming and going.” plus a modest cachet. You would naturally stay at the Embassy. Mind you discover a way of accomplishing this so gt. desire of ours, which would be the best possible card for the U.S.A. The Provisional Govt. is doing well, but is over conservative in tone & too oligarchical to escape criticism. Our 1st 4 weeks here were very occupied as only the programmes of returning Dips“Diplomats.” know how to be & thus we became submerged by the political situation, spent about 3 weeks telephoning all day & every night until 3 am & have been completely absorbed since. The new lot is handling the Communists well. For God’s sake write (dictate) a thorough acct. of the mess in Europe—I am as sure of war as if the bugles were already playing Reveille. Will the Fascists combine, overturn Sovietism, have their short hour & then, with the next swing of the pendulum, send us towards Bolshevistic Socialism? How do you see it all? I can’t rid my memory of what ClémenceauGeorges Benjamin Clémenceau (1841–1929), a French statesman who served as prime minister between 1906 and 1909 and again between 1917 and 1920. He was instrumental in formulating the Treaty of Versailles at the Paris Peace Conference after the First World War. told me in 1920 & again in 1928; of what FochFerdinand Foch (1851–1929), a French soldier and military theorist who served as general in the French army during the First World War. He was made marshal of France in 1918. told me in 1919, 20, 21 & 24; of what History tells me & of which I seem to have known always & myself told Clémenceau on Armistice Day & again in Oct. 1919.

Royall dear, how I long for you. Our love to Elisina & Bill, & Edith, & greetings to Hayford. Condolences to all who fell for Durlacher’s Lombardic stuff.Durlacher Brothers, an antiquities dealership based in London and New York. In 1843, Henry Durlacher founded the London firm that would later be known as Durlacher Brothers after his two sons, George (ca. 1859—1942) and Alfred. The New York firm opened in the early 1920s and was managed by R. Kirk Askew. He became the owner of Durlacher Brothers in 1937 and ran the business from New York until ca. 1969. The Durlachers’ Lombard gold treasure was shown at the Burlington Fine Arts Club exhibition Art in the Dark Ages in Europe (circa 400–1000 AD) in 1930. See Reginald Smith, Treasure from a Lombard Chieftain’s Grave (London, ca. 1925); Otto Kurz, Falsi e falsari (Venice: N. Pozza, 1960), 252–54; and Dafydd Kidd, “Fakes of Early Medieval European Jewelry,” in Fake? The Art of Deception, ed. Mark Jones (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 173–76. See letter of August 15, 1930. Distressed to hear Salter’s health poor—? What of PersianThe International Exhibition of Persian Art, Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London, January 7–February 28, 1931. See Persian Art: An Illustrated Souvenir of the Exhibition of Persian Art at Burlington House, London, 1931 (London: Hudson and Kearns, 1931), & Byzantine exhibitions?Byzantine exhibition of 1931. & what do you gather as to estimations on Doucet sale?See Collection Jacques Doucet: Céramiques d’Extrême-Orient, bronzes, sculptures, peintures chinoises et japonaises, laques du Japon, faïences de la Perse, de la Transcaspie et de la Mésopotamie, miniatures persanes, vente du vendredi 28 novembre 1930 (Paris : Impr. Lahure, 1930).

We both think & talk of you daily & my thought is always with you, dearest Royall.

M.B.

 
Associated Things: Byzantine Exhibition of 1931
Associated Artworks: HC.P.1930.04.(O)