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Royall Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss, September 29, 1930 [4]

Hotel Esplanade
Berlin W9, den 29.IX.1930Monday.
Bellevuestrade
Kurfürst 6751

I’ve just wired you, dearest Mildred ‘got 97HC.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. marks sixty seven thousand eight hundred including percentage please cable Berliner Handelsgesellschaft my favour stop BoschFigdor Collection sale, Paul Cassirer Gallery, Berlin, September 29–30, 1930. 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. over 400 thousand.’See telegram of September 29, 1930 [1].

You’ll like Marie de Bourgogne. She is fresh and very pretty indeed, and in excellent state. The only picture in the sale except the Bosch—and now you’ve got her I don’t think you’ll need another German picture.

I won’t harrow you about the Bosch—but it is a marvel.

By the way, 96, Maximilian, is not the pendant of 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. It is much smaller, and far less attractive, and it fetched very nearly as much as Marie (4,000 marks less). 97 came at a moment when everyone in the sale was at a low ebb, and many had already gone off to lunch, or Marie might have gone much higher, I should think.

On the whole, the collection was disappointing, and I’m sure that on inspection you wouldn’t have liked any other of the picturesFigdor Collection sale, Paul Cassirer Gallery, Berlin, September 29–30, 1930. See Max J. Friedländer, Die Sammlung Dr. Albert Figdor, Wien (Berlin: Cassirer, 1930), no. 34 (Netherlandish, Nativity, pl. 21); no. 39 (Master of Saint Gudule, One of the Seven Works of Charity, pl. 25); no. 40 (Master of the Figdor Crucifixion, Crucifixion, pl. 26); no. 49 (Master of the Magdalene Legend, Portrait of One of the Sisters of Charles V, pl. 32); no. 50 (Master of the Magdalene Legend, Mary Magdalene and the Falcon Hunt, pl. 33); no. 51 (Corneille de Lyon, Portrait of a Woman, pl. 34); no. 82 (French, Portrait of a Man, pl. 43); and no. 100 (Lucas Cranach the Elder, Portrait of a Young Woman, pl. 56). you telegraphed about.

The Giov. di Paolo, No. 9, was a decided disappointment, far less attractive than in the reproduction, but it fetched RM. 152.,500.

All these prices include 13% commission. I got the auctioneers to take off 2% for me. They normally charge 15%.

Berlin comes somewhere near being agreeable today, in a soft autumn sunlight.

I’m now going to break it to George GordonGeorge Anderson Gordon (1885–1959), an American attorney and diplomat who at the time was counselor at the U.S. embassy in Berlin. He later served as an ambassador to Haiti (1935–1937) and the Netherlands (1937–1940). that he’s got to have Marie conveyed to Paris in the pouch.

Bless you, dearest Mildred.

R. T.

 
Associated Places: Berlin (Germany)
Associated Artworks: HC.P.1930.04.(O)