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May 9th, 1956 Dear Mr. Byam Shaw: These lines are in the form of an appeal to your knowledge of GIAN DOMENICO TIEPOLO, which I hope you will not mind. A few days ago, I acquired the drawing of which I am sending you herein a photograph, so tempted was I, not only by it's crispness and freshness, but also on account of it's most unusual subject matter, which I assume should belong to a series, though completely unknown to me. Mr. Henry S. Francis to whom I had an opportunity of showing it, was unable to help me and suggested I communicate with you as you were gathering material for a publication on this artist. The only other GIAN DOMENICO TIEPOLO with wild animals in this country known to me is the "Elephants" in the John Pierpont Morgan Library, but the presence of the Puccinelli in the latter would rally it to the Puccinelli series, I suppose. In mine as you will notice is none of these and I would think it should be part of a group related to a Zoo should the artist have built up such a one, or it may be purely and simply a unique subject in his oeuvre? It is carried out with a rich Sepia wash and aside ^[[from]] the signature - in the lower left corner - as you will find, there are no other markings such as numbers etc. As long as you are assembling data on GIAN DOMENICO TIEPOLO, I thought you might like to have a print of another drawing I had of the "Saint Peter" series, which evidently belongs to the same group as the ones in the Chicago Art Institute and the Morgan Library. The latter is corroborated by markings such as numbers. Please do not bother to answer me, for if as I hope we meet on May 22nd, you then can give me Viva Voce your opinion. Thanking you in advance and with best regards, Sincerely yours, Germain Seligman J. Byam Shaw Esq., P. & D. Colnaghi, Ltd. 14 Old Bond Street, London, W. 1.
Transcription Notes:
some apparent misspellings corrected, as this is a carbon copy and shows obvious corrections
