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[[preprinted]] 
TELEGRAMS: "RESEMBLE, LONDON."
TELEPHONE: REGENT 3042 & 3043

THOS AGNEW & SONS, LTD.

MANAGING DIRECTORS
C. GERALD AGNEW.
G. COLIN AGNEW.
HUGH L. AGNEW.
GEOFFREY W.G. AGNEW.

43, OLD BOND STREET 
AND
3, ALBEMARLE STREET
LONDON, W.I.
[[/preprinted]]

19th October, 1938.

My dear Germain Seligmann,

I must apologise for not writing to you sooner, but I happen to have been very busy recently.

With regard to Mr. Schiff's Portrait of a Man by Roger van der Weyden.  After my restorer had removed all that clumsy opaque restoration which made the picture look so bad, one could see what remained of the original painting.

I am sorry to say that of the original flesh painting there was very little left.  The hands had suffered terribly and the chin and middle part of the neck almost equally badly.  The upper part of the face and the outline of the neck had at least retained its original lines, though the whole face has been at some time rubbed and flattened out.  Everywhere there are huge cracks.  The background also has suffered considerably.  On the other hand the costume is comparatively well preserved, particularly all the red coat. 

As you can imagine from what I have said it will never be possible to make the picture look like a well preserved painting.  On the other hand my restorer, who is really a genius, will, I believe, be able to make the portrait fairly presentable, with at least the appearance of an original Van der Weyden, which it had completely lost under all that crude repainting which was on it up till we cleaned the picture.

It is extremely difficult to know what sort of value one will be able to put upon the picture.  I do not think it could ever be a picture for a first-class collector or a first-class museum, in other words it will have to be sold at something in the nature of a bargain price.

^[[I think it would be perhaps a good thing to show the picture to Friedlander when ready.

Yours very kindly]]

[[signed]]Colin Agnew[[/signed]]