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Robert Woods Bliss to Royall Tyler, January 28, 1936 [2]

January 28th 1936.

Mr. Royall Tyler,

Finance Ministry

Budapest, Hungary

Dear Royall,

Thank you for your telegramSee telegram of January 20, 1936 [1]. approving our project;A European trip that included Russia. it was helpful in making out the itinerary.

Your letter to Mildred of the 20th instant arrived as we were leaving for Madrid (where we spent three delightful days with the ChiltonsSir Henry Chilton (1877–1954), a British diplomat who was minister to the Vatican and ambassador to Chile, Argentina, and Spain (1935–1939). He was married to Katherine née O’Brien (d. 1959).), but there was no time there to reply to your suggestion of going first to Vienna.

Unfortunately it will not be possible to follow this suggestion, as the itinerary is made out and railroad tickets already solicited.

This is our plan: Leave Paris Monday evening, February 3rd, arriving Stockholm morning February 5th; leave there Saturday afternoon, 8th; arriving Leningrad Monday 10th, Moscow 14th, Berlin 18th (Esplanade Hotel), Prague morning 21st and leave there night of 22nd, arriving Budapest 7.57 A.M. Sunday 23rd. We propose to stay there until sometime Tuesday so as to have, if possible, a day and a half in Vienna. As you know, the express train from Vienna to Italy leaves only on Wednesdays and Saturdays, so we shall be obliged to take the 7.45 P.M. train, Wednesday night, the 26th. This gives us a very scrimpy time in Vienna, but is the best we can do under the circumstances.

Could you send, either here or to the American Legation at Stockholm, the letters you suggested for Russia, and also one for SarreFriedrich Sarre (1865–1945), a German archaeologist, art historian, and collector of Islamic art. in Berlin?

I am enclosing photographs of two objectsThese objects have not been identified. Royall Tyler references photos of a Romanesque figure in his letter of February 1, 1936. we have seen and which we like; perhaps you could let me know what you think of them and return the photographs at once.

We reveled in the PradoThe Museo del Prado, a Spanish national art museum located in Madrid. during our three days in Madrid and now have a very crowded week ahead of us. I have acquired the rest of the findBZ.1936.3 and 6–15. This purportedly Visigothic hoard of the sixth century consisted of bronze-gilt and red and clear inlay fibulae, some in the form of eagles. They were acquired from Mildred Stapley Byne (1874–1941), the wife of the dealer and art scholar Arthur Byne (1884–1935), in Madrid in January 1936. The items of this hoard are now considered forgeries of the nineteenth or twentieth century. to which the four eaglesBZ.1936.1–2 and 4–5. These eagle fibulae are now considered forgeries of the nineteenth or twentieth century. BZ.1936.2 was deaccessioned on September 5, 2003, and given to the British Museum, London. belong and shall write you about a rather exciting pieceThis piece has not been identified. later.

Forgive this hurried line,

R.W.B.

 
Associated Places: Budapest (Hungary); Madrid (Spain)
Associated Artworks: BZ.1936.1–15