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Robert Woods Bliss to Royall Tyler, March 20, 1940

March 20, 1940

Dear Royall,

Your three letters of February 13, 16 and 17, as well as the postcard of January 27 from Brussels, all arrived in due time.

We have not been able to find any reproductions of the three objectsSee letter of February 13, 1940. you mention of the EumoGeorge Eumorfopoulos. Collection, nor has the catalogue come from Sotheby. For fear lest the delays these days occasioned in the delivery of mail might be fatalistic, I shall in a few days write Sotheby giving him a limit on these objects. I might say that I have also deferred writing you thinking that perhaps you might sail before a letter would reach you. Nevertheless, I am dashing this off in haste and brevity that you may know your words of wisdom have fallen on fertile ground.

It was a disappointment to learn that you received my letter about the Visigothic objects at the Spanish Art Gallery in London after your visit there.See letter of January 2, 1940. We wanted very much to have you see these things to know whether we should make a stab at them. We do not feel at all convinced that they are objects which we want in addition to what we already have,BZ.1936.1–15. but if they could be procured for a reasonable amount it might be chic to do some market-cornering! A letter came two days ago from the Spanish Art Gallery saying they would make a ten per cent reduction in the original price asked but I feel that, with even that amount off, it is much more than we want to put into such objects.

At the time I wrote you about these things I had not then received a subsequent letter from the Art Gallery sending me photographs of seventeen pieces from about fifty Spanish Visigothic objects.These photographs are in the Byzantine Collection, Tomás Harris correspondence file. Among the photographs sent there were illustrated two very fine large bucklesThere are five buckles represented in this set of photographs. The two largest, numbered one and two, are said to be six inches and six-and-a-quarter inches, respectively. and two splendid fibuli,Fibulae at The Spanish Art Gallery, London, in 1940. so if by any stroke of good luck you should be in London before sailing you will have a chance to look at these things and give us your views. His 10% reduction applies to the two eagles and buckle mentioned in his first communication and to which I referred in my letter to you of January 13th,This is an addendum to the letter of January 2, 1940. and to the fifty additional objects.

A letter from Bill this morning announces that he has been awarded the Sachs Research Fellowship,The Sachs Research Fellowship in Fine Arts, with a stipend of $2,000, was established in 1916 by Samuel Sachs (1851–1935), an investment banker. By the terms of its foundation, this fellowship is given to scholars of proven ability for the purpose of enabling them to pursue in any part of the world advanced studies in the history, principles, or methods of the fine arts. which is really a fine feather in his cap. Mildred came back from a week in Cambridge telling me that he had received 98 in each one of his examinations. In any other institution than Harvard this is equal to about 125.

Mildred joins me in much love,

Affectionately,

[unsigned]

Royal [sic] Tyler, Esquire

League of Nations

GENEVA.

 
Associated Places: London (United Kingdom)
Associated Artworks: BZ.1936.1–15