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Royall Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss, June 13, 1930

Grand Hotel Hugaria Budapest
13.VI.30Friday.

Here I am, dearest Mildred, on my old stamping ground. I don’t know when I can get away, and fear that it will not be in time to see you before you leave, which thought give[s] me a sharp pain in my inside.

I saw in the paper some of the FigdorAlbert Figdor (1843–1927), a Viennese banker and collector. prices.Figdor Collection sale, Paul Cassirer Gallery, Berlin, September 29–30, 1930. See Max J. Friedländer, Die Sammlung Dr. Albert Figdor, Wien (Berlin: Cassirer, 1930). The garden carpet fetched Austr. S. 135,000 (just under £4000) and was bought, I’m glad to say, by the Vienna Museum.Garden carpet, Persian, second half of the sixteenth century, silk and gold and silver threads. See Max J. Friedländer, Die Sammlung Dr. Albert Figdor, Wien (Berlin: Cassirer, 1930), no. 202, pls. 51 and 52. The carpet is now in the Österreichisches Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna. See Friedrich Paul Theodor Sarre and Hermann Renkwald, Alt-orientalische Teppiche, vol. 2 (Vienna: Schroll, 1929), pl. 12. The Copenhagen Museum got the big tapestryWool tapestry, Flemish (Tournai), second half of the fifteenth century. See Max J. Friedländer, Die Sammlung Dr. Albert Figdor, Wien (Berlin: Cassirer, 1930), no. 36, pls. 18–20. The tapestry is now in the Kunstindustrimuseet, Copenhagen.—I haven’t yet seen the price.£57,500. See “Art Treasures Sold. High Prices for Tapestries,” The Sydney Morning Herald, June 13, 1930.

A feature of the sale was the number of things secured by Museums, and the modest part played by the dealers. Let us hope it continues. With N.Y. Stock exchange behaving as it is, it may well continue.

Mind you leave word for me if you want that Hein stone.Possibly a “very fine Mexican black marble mask,” from the dealer Béla Desco Hein (1883–1931), a Hungarian collector and dealer. Born in Kremnica, Slovakia, Hein arrived in Paris in 1910 and opened a gallery specializing in tribal and European works of art in 1923. Hein is especially known for his collection of African art. Apparently this otherwise unidentified mask was not purchased. See also letters of January 5, 1928, and April 7, 1930.

It has been a blessing to see you, precious Mildred, and I shall be supported by the thought that, next time, there won’t be the spectre of such a horrible long separation afterward.

Yours
R. T.

Our last lunch alone makes life worth living.

 
Associated Places: Budapest (Hungary)