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RML/D

December 27th, 1935.

Dear Jack:

I have just received your welcome lines of December 19th for which I thank you, and of course I was delighted to see that your interest in the little SEURAT drawing had not waned.

You are absolutely right when you say that after two years, if a work of art can again be brought to mind with such a strong urge for its acquisition, it certainly shows that it retains an everlasting fine quality.

At the previous time when you were interested in the drawing, the price for same was four hundred dollars, ($400) for which I made a special effort and reduced it to ($250) two hundred and fifty dollars, which you can see for yourself, is a tremendous reduction in an item of such a small figure.

Since then, because of the increasing scarsity [[scarcity]] of SEURAT's works, and because of the exceptionally fine quality of most of the examples that we have by him, the price has actually been increased to five hundred dollars ($500), so that you can readily understand that it was impossible to accept your offer on this drawing.

When I spoke to Mr. Séligmann about it without mentioning your name, that is, merely saying that we had an offer on that particular drawing, he was very adamant and would not take any discount off at all. I argued with him at length in an effort so [[to]] have him make a concession and enable me to conclude the sale.

Finally, I told him that it was for a personal friend of mine, and when I mentioned your name he said, "Ah! that's different. Why didn't you tell me so before".

Without boring you too long with all these details, the very best possible price - which is really way below cost and less than the drawing would sell for at auction in Paris, would be two hundred and fifty dollars ($250).

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