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December 21, 1956

Dear Sir Alec:

Your lines of December 17th were duly received and I am glad to know that all four items are now in your hands. It is good of you to ask for my comments, which I will impart, but it is really from you that my client would like to hear.

[[underlined]] Lancret: [[/underlined]]
My client considers that it should reach a minimum of Pounds Sterling 10,000. It was included in one of the official exhibitions, has references, etc., and were it not for the fact that the painting has had some wear in places, it should bring considerably more in view of its unusual, large size, and the subject, which is indeed rare in the artist's oeuvre. Your attention has already been called to the comparison to be made with one by the same artist in the former Hohenzollern Collection in Berlin or Potsdam.

[[underlined]] Schall: [[/underlined]]
This is an attractive painting with an interesting pedigree and story, but it is not to be expected that it should reach beyond 600 or 700 pounds.

[[underlined]] Limoges Enamel Triptych: [[/underlined]]
May I say that you should not go by the figures of the Mortimer L.Schiff auction, for i^[[f]] you look up the other prices of Renaissance works of art you will notice that they all more or less sold very poorly. On the other hand it will interest you to know that in Berne at the Rütschi Sale (November 26,27, 1954) two oblong plaques of the same period fetched around $10,000, and I see no reason why this triptych, which is a complete one and in a remarkable state of preservation, should not reach a very similar figure.

[[underlined]] Marble head of a Youth: [[/underlined]]
May I say first that alabaster has not a genial sound to me, and furthermore I believe that alabaster was hardly ever used in France, but essentially in Italy and Spain. Thus, were you not to object, my client would prefer the medium indicated as [[underlined]] "Marble" [[/underlined]], or [[underlined]]"Soft marble" [[/underlined]] were the latter necessary. I personally consider this head as a most attractive and rare one, and though I do not recall having seen anything similar auctioned in recent years, it would seem to me that a figure around £800 should be a reasonabbe one.

In connection with reserves, I doubt very much whether my client will be willing to place any from the conversations I have already

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