Skip to Content
 

Royall Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss, December 30, 1929

29, Rue d’Astorg
Paris
30.XII.29Monday.

Again! you’ll say, dearest Mildred; so soon after the other!

The reason for this is that I have just heard of the death of Walter Burns.Walter Spencer Morgan Burns (1891–1929), a British art collector and financier, was a nephew of J. Pierpont Morgan and a partner in his firm, J. P. Morgan & Co., as of December 31, 1897. He owned your Crucifixion Byz. ivory. He also has (or had, as he couldn’t take it with him) a very fine Byz. enamelThe Blisses did not acquire this piece until 1936. See also letters of February 23, 1930; March 30, 1931; and June 21, 1934.—a really good one. I hear there is likely to be a sale (in London) as the family don’t like Byz. objects, and I suggest to you that you’ll probably never again get a chance to buy as good an enamel as Burns’s. I don’t know what it will fetch—probably a horrid sum, perhaps £5000, or even more.

I’ve been trying to get a photograph of it for a long time, without success. If I can get one I’ll send it to you. I’ve never seen it myself, but Eric Maclagan has, and other people who know.

Please, on receipt of this, consult with Robert, and wire me whether or not you want me to try to get it for you. I’ll in any case keep an eye out for the sale—but please wire me at once, because if you didn’t want the thing, I know someone else who perhaps would, and don’t want to have it slip through my hands.

Much love to you, dearest Mildred.

R. T.

P. S.

The Rabbi had explained to the children that God was all-knowing and all-powerful, and that they must lay before him all their troubles and pray for His help.

Der kleine Moritz“Little Moritz.” says: ‘If God is all-knowing, He must know our troubles as well as we do; what’s the good of asking His help?’

The Rabbi: ‘Ja, der Liebe Gott ist zwar all-wissend: Er will nur nicht zudringlich sein.’“Yes, the dear Lord is all-knowing. Only He doesn’t want to be intrusive.”

 
Associated People: Eric Maclagan; Robert Woods Bliss
Associated Places: Paris (France)
Associated Artworks: BZ.1929.2; BZ.1936.20