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Royall Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss, August 7, 1928

Hotel Sacher, Wien
7.VIII.28Tuesday.

Having said so much about the Sanguszko carpet being greater than any other I’d ever seen, dearest Mildred, I thought I’d better have another look at the Hofteppiche“Court carpets.” here though I know them pretty well.

Enclosed are post cards of some of the best. The corner reproduced is a bit out of the great Vienna wool carpet:Carpet, silk, 6.39 x 8.23 m, Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, inv. T 8336. See also letters of April 5, 1926, and April 29, 1928, in which Tyler also erroneously notes the carpet was wool. it’s a poor affair compared with the Sanguszko.

The other two are little ducks, both—quite tiny prayer carpets, of course, nothing.

In a word, there’s nothing here, among all the splendours of the finest collection of carpets known, to come anywhere near Sanguszko. By the way, I think the two Milan carpetsDated hunting carpet (1542–1543) in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan, inv. d.t. 1. See Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby, Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Safavid Iran, 1501–1576 (Milan: Skira, 2003), 296, no. 12.19. The identity of the second carpet at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum is unclear. It may be a central Persian carpet, dated to the second half of the sixteenth century, inv. 424. are quite as good, if not better, than anything here.For Tyler’s comparison of these carpets with the Sanguszko, see letter of June 26, 1928: “Those two carpets at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum at Milan are marvels, but—. Neither in colour, nor in drawing, nor in general design, are they anywhere near.”

I’m just leaving for London, and you’ll hear from me again after I’ve re-seen those at the S. Kensington. I want to have the great carpets in my eye as soon as possible after that overwhelming Offenbarung.“Revelation.”

Much love—

R. T.