Royall Tyler to Robert Woods Bliss, May 15, 1935
1935 May 15
3101 R St
Wash DC
TextileThis textile was identified as a Byzantine silk of the ninth century in a May 1, 1935, letter from Marguerite Mallon to Mildred Barnes Bliss. The price quoted was 125,000 francs. Byzantine Collection, Mallon correspondence file. See also letter of May 17, 1935. lovely SeldjoukThe Seljuq period, a Turkish Sunni Muslim dynasty of the eleventh–twelfth century that adopted Persian culture and contributed to the Turko-Persian tradition. eleventh not Byzantine, extravagant price. I should vastly prefer diptychBZ.1935.4.a–b. for which Stora now taking 125000. Just seen again comparing those Cabinet Medailles.The Cabinet Medailles has two sixth-century ivory diptychs of Flavius Theodorus Philoxenus, consul in 525: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Départment des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques, Chab. 3266 and 3264. Strongly advise. Please cable me Crilonotel till Saturday or afterwards Stora Stop. All remaining TrivluzioLuigi Alberico Trivulzio (1868–1938), Prince of Musocco and Marchese of Sesto Ulteriano. Trivulzio was responsible for the sale of much of his family’s art collection. objects sold Milan.Much of the Trivulzio Collection (including ivories) was acquired by the museum complex, Civiche Raccolte d’Arte Applicata, Castello Sforzesco, Milan, in 1935. JewelPendant and Reliquary, ca. 398–407, agate, gold, emeralds, and rubies, Musée du Louvre, Paris, acc. no. OA 9523. On one side, the names of Maria, her parents, and husband are arranged to form the chi-rho (the first two Greek letters of the name of Christ). This side reads (clockwise around a central cross): HONORI, MARIA (forming the curve of the rho), SERHNA, STELICHO. On the other side, the names of Stelicho, his wife, and children are also arranged to form the chi-rho. This side reads (clockwise around a central cross): STELICHO, SERENA (forming the curve of the rho), EUCHERI, THERMANTIA. On both sides, the horizontal bar of the cross reads: VIVATIS “May they live.” Between the two pieces of agate is earth, most likely from the Holy Land. The pendant, which had been in the Trivulzio Collection, was acquired by a member of the Montesquiou-Fezensac family, and was an anonymous gift to the Musée du Louvre on behalf of the Société des Amis du Louvre in 1951. See Kurt Weitzmann, ed., Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979), 306, no. 279. also sold. Love.