Royall Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss, June 10, 1931
29, rue d’Astorg
Paris
F Anjou 16–88
10.VI.31Wednesday.
Dearest Mildred,
Here is our prospectus.This prospectus was for Royall Tyler’s and Hayford Peirce’s multivolume L’art byzantin, the first volume of which was published in 1932. The copy of the prospectus sent to Mildred Barnes Bliss, if extant, has not been located. Sent separately, registered. I don’t know what Hayford will say when he sees we are to produce so quick (and that they’ve spelt his name wrong). Also, I see there’s a mistake in the text on the back tirer de la numismatique . . le parti [sic] qu’il offre“Drawn from the numismatic . . . the part that is offered.”—but only a few have been printed, and this will be corrected at once. I thought it better that he should find the flag nailed to the mast when he lands here on June 25. I’m also enclosing, begging you to return it, Hayford’s programme for the inauguration ceremony of the ExhibitionThis copy of the program, if extant, has not been located.—which was followed as closely as circumstances would permit.
The Show is really being a huge success, and far more people are coming than we could have hoped for. Of course our expenses have been huge, and it’s doubtful whether they’ll be covered, but happily David Weill is immensely enthusiastic about it, tells people that it’s the finest exhibition he’s ever seen in his life, and has assured Metman that he’ll look after any deficit.
A great surprise—my little Résumé is greatly appreciated, in the Catalogue,Charles Diehl, Jean Ebersolt, and Royall Tyler, Exposition internationale d’art byzantin, 28 mai–9 juillet 1931 (Paris: Musée des arts décoratifs, 1931), 45–53. which sells like hot cakes. I should readily be a very happy boy if it weren’t for the dismal thought of your absence.
Our prospectus is being offered for distribution and subscription today.
Bless you.
P.S
I wish I could make some useful suggestion where MoltkePossibly Leon Charles Joseph Moltke–Huitfeldt (1898–1976), the son of Count Adam Moltke–Huitfeldt, the Danish ambassador to France. is concerned. Things are frightfully difficult, and all the banks and big business houses are trying rather to get out of their commitments and get rid of staff. I’ll bear him in mind, and watch out for any possible opening.
The sort of thing that happens nowadays: You remember Gabriel de Mun.Marquis Gabriel de Mun (1883–1952), a French banker who became manager of the Paris office of the Natonal City Bank of New York. Last year he was taken on by Pynchon & Co.,The New York investment firm of Pynchon and Co., with offices in London, Liverpool, and Paris, was suspended for insolvency by the New York Stock Exchange on April 24, 1931. See “Exchange Suspends Pynchon & Company; Action Follows Notice by Firm That It Is Unable to Meet Its Obligations. Loans Put at $40,000,000,” New York Times, April 25, 1931. with the younger Vallombrose,Possibly Paul Vallombrosa (1890–1950), who worked at a bond brokerage in Montreal and served as lieutenant in the French cavalry during the First World War. to run a branch here. Well, they learned of Pynchon’s difficulties through the press, and up to the present they have had not a word of explanation or of directions from Pynchon & Co. N.Y. Vallombrose has gone to N.Y. to try and straighten things out, and de Mun is here winding up as best he can.
I was in London the other day, and Bill came up to dine with me. He looks very well and is enjoying BalliolBalliol College was founded in 1263 as one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford.—working quite hard, I should think. He likes the dons he has to do with—or most of them—and they’ve been very good to him, which I look upon without alarm because I think Bill’s ideas are so firmly set in another and more normal direction, that the danger of Oxford ethics (and Cambridge is just as bad, or worse) doesn’t exist for him. We laugh about it together, which is the main thing.
The Homberg SaleOctave Marie Joseph Homberg (1876–1941), a French diplomat and banker who had been the French financial agent in America and the president of the Commission of Exchange in France tasked with studying the means of maintaining the value of the franc abroad and remedying the consequences of the adverse commercial balance. See Collection Octave Homberg. Tableaux anciens—Oeuvres importantes de J.-F. Schall, aquarelle, dessin, gouache, pastels par J.-B. Huet, Maréchal, Pillement, H. Robert. Antiquités egyptiennes, grecques et romaines—Objets de haute curiosité européens et orientaux du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance. Faïences de Rhagès et de Damas—Miniatures et manuscrits persans—Emaux champlevés, ivoires, sculptures—Livres d’ heures—Velours—Tissus—Tapisseries gothiques—Magnifiques tapis persans du XVIe siècle. Meubles en laque et ébénisterie par J. Dubois, R. Dubois, B. V. R. B., Montigny—Sulptures—sièges en Savonnerie et tapisserie de Beauvais du XVIIIe siècle—Objets d’ art de la Chine, à la Galerie Georges Petit les mercredi 3, jeudi 4 et vendredi 5 Juin 1931. went pretty well, considering that there weren’t many really good things—it fetched, on an overall, about 10% less than the prices asked. Sales in London are going quite well.