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November 28, 1970

Dear Mr. Cecil;

It was a delightful surprise several days ago to receive the new recently published guide to the Wallace Collection and I am desirous of expressing my sincerest thanks to you, or, should this attention be due to Mr. F. J. B. Watson's thoughtfulness, may I ask you to convey my deep appreciation to him.

I have, of course, spent a few hours studying this booklet which, though small, contains such valuable information, particularly in the supplementary notes. At the end of the story on the founders, I noticed my father's name in connection with the final dispersal of the Bagatelle collection. Though you mention that the majority of the items are now dispersed, I assume, nevertheless, that with the help of the inventory I communicated a few years ago, you have been able to re-trace many of them to the collections of the new owners. This lends me to inquire whether you are in possession of the book I published in New York in 1961, "Merchants of Art, 1880-1960 - Eighty Years of Professional Collecting"? Should this not be the case, I would gladly send you one of my very few remaining copies.

If I am mentioning this volume it is because it contains a great deal of information on the Wallace Bagatelle Collection. At the very end, on page 267, is a chapter entitled, "Notes on the Inventory of the Wallace Collection of Paris". With the archives of my then Paris firm having been destroyed during the Nazi occupation the listing of items is perforce limited but could nevertheless be of some use for your files.

I am thus led to ask a question referring to a matter of moment to me, and which you will realize has been on my mind for a great many years. It refers to the painting reproduced in my book, plate 23 B, representing a very large work:

François BOUCHER: "The Birth and Triumph of Venus"

(Not as completely finished as yours). It indicates the pedigree Wallace Bagatelle, Baron Eugène de Rothschild, Vienna, re-purchased by me jointly with Paul Cailleux, acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art through Munsey bequest and personal gifts of Henry Walters and me. It has always seemed strange to me that, apparently due to some one person's partial opinion, this painting was never recognized by the Metropolitan curator as being by Boucher, though no other artist's name has even been suggested, and it was highly praised by the Paris experts of the time, such

(T.S.V.P.)