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Transcribe page 8 of 37
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Download PDF for AAA-jacqself00008-000088 (project ID 11285)
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^[[Rs]] ^[[checkmark]] [[underlined]]Via Air Mail[[/underlined]] RS ES January 11, 1928 Miss Phyllis Ackerman, 37 Santa Inez Avenue, San Mateo, Calif. Dear Phyllis, I just received your expertise on the hunting tapestry and your inquiry about a piece of Millefleur. I believe I have something which could do. I am having a photograph made of it which I shall air mail you tomorrow. In the meantime, I did not feel it was necessary to wait, as you are very familiar with that type of tapestry. It is a tapestry on Millefleurette background with a medallion in the center representing a hunting scene. It is exactly the same kind of tapestry as the one we sold to the St. Louis Museum with the difference that the one sold to the Museum was much larger, had two medallions and a large outside border. Our tapestry measures -- height, 4'3", width, 5'7". It is in perfect condition, and the price is Seven Thousand Dollars ($7,000). I must admit that I was quite disappointed with the expertise in reference to the hunting tapestry and I am wondering if you could not word it differently so as to have the tapestry appear as having been woven around 1470. According to the costumes and owing to the fact that the composition is not crowded like on the later Gothic tapestries, I have always heard that this tapestry had been made quite some time before the Louis XII Period and was most probably Burgundian according to the faces. I am likewise surprised that you attribute the Unicorn Series to such a late date, as it has always been generally accepted that they were woven around 1450. Now, of course, I do not wish to doubt your opinion for a moment, but I just want to point out to you that if ever these Unicorn tapestries should leave the Cluny Museum to be sold, you will have killed the possibility of that sale by making such a statement. The people who buy that kind of tapestry like the idea that it is of the early Gothic Period and are not very much interested in the quality of the design and of the coloring. I imagine that you will see my point of view and
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