Skip to Content
 

Royall Tyler to Robert Woods Bliss, September 27, 1938

The Connaught HotelThe Connaught Hotel, a luxury hotel in Carlos Place, Mayfair, central London. First opened in 1815 as the Prince of Saxe Coburg Hotel, it was rebuilt and reopened in 1897. In 1917, during the First World War, the name was changed to the less-German “Connaught,” the title of Queen Victoria’s third son, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught.

Mayfair, London, W.1.

27.IX.38

Dear Robert.

I sent off D.O. Papers No 1, with photos.Hayford Peirce and Royall Tyler, “Elephant Tamer Silk, VIIIth Century,” in Three Byzantine Works of Art, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 2 (1941): 19–26. yesterday, registered. Please let me know when you receive it—and any suggestions or criticisms. (No author’s pride!)

I spoke to SpinksSpink & Son, London, an auction house that principally deals with coins and paper money. about Hirsch’sJacob Hirsch (1874–1955), a German-Swiss numismatist, archaeologist, and antiquities dealer. Honorius: he says he thinks it will probably fetch as much as Sw. Fr. 15000 (i.e. a bit over $3000.) but adds that if the atmosphere is bad it might go for less ($2000?).Ars Classica S.A., auction XVIII, 10 October 1938, published in Catalogue de monnaies Romaines, contenant la célebre collection d’un diplomate étranger depuis longtemps décédé (Geneva, 1938), lot 533. The medallion sold for 10,500 Swiss Francs. We thank Mark Aaron Silverman for this information. He has had no inquiries so far.

If you want me to get him to bid, please let me know by cable to Geneva, giving outside limit. Sale slated for Oct. 10.Ars Classica Auction 18 (Vicomte de Sartiges Collection), Hôtel Schweizerhof, Lucerne, Switzerland, October 10, 1938.

I’m still not hopeless. The President’s messageOn September 27, 1938, President Roosevelt wrote Adolf Hitler regarding the threat of war in Europe. Hitler had been threatening to invade the Sudentenland of Czechoslovakia, and Roosevelt reiterated the need to find a peaceful resolution to the issue. did help.

Love to both

Yrs

R. T.

Just flying back to Geneva.