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RHW:R

3 East 51st Street
New York, New York
July 7th, 1937

Dear Germain:

Your very nice letter of June 27th reached me upon my return to town yesterday and I indeed was delighted to know you are in such good spirits and at your favorite resort which always does you such a lot of good.  Let us only hope that the weather, meanwhile has changed and you can indulge in a little mountain climbing and nice hikes.  I hope meanwhile my other letters have been forwarded to you from Paris so that you are au current with the activities here.  It is getting quieter and life in the city is really very dull and uninteresting.

Tom and the boys are working on the house very bravely.  They have finished all the outside painting and windows and are just painting the ceiling in the downstairs gallery here, but Mr. Liechti most likely will give you a better and more detailed report of what actually has been done and finished.

I shall answer now the different questions in your letter:

WILLIAM TAYLOR -- I note with interest what you tell me and that I can go ahead and see what I can do with him.  My inquiry was merely to avoid any faux-pas that might spoil instead of help things, and I think that collaborating with you, René and César on this gentleman will only be helpful.  I have just written to Georges at length about Mr. Taylor.  Mr. Taylor came to New York last Tuesday prior to his sailing that night and spent the entire afternoon with Nicky de Molas and myself.  In fact, he dined with me in my apartment.  I can only say that we are on extremely friendly terms again.  I furnished him with several addresses for Hamburg and Berlin which two cities he intends to visit during his European sojourn and it was finally he, himself, who brought the conversation on to business.  He seemed to be particularly impressed with César who must have received him either in Paris or here, and Bill told me that he surely would call on the Paris office to see what we have.  He also told me that he regretted very much that when he first came to the house he had inquired after me but he was informed that I had severed my connections with the firm.  Mr. Taylor furthermore told me that he would have liked very much to buy something from us but that our prices have been so prohibitive that he did not see his way clear at the time.  I think I did the right thing in pointing out to him that the only criticism any competitor or such museum authorities that did not wish us well can have with our merchandise is to say it is too expensive.  However, I thought it intelligent to point out to him the purchase of the Renoir by the Boston Museum, the Coe pictures, the Paley pictures, and the Ryerson picture and the Phillips picture, and I believe it did the trick because Mr. Taylor knew most of these people personally and began to realize that if his friends have the courage and conviction to purchase fine works of art from us, that they are certainly not the type to do anything foolish or prohibitively expensive.  Mr. Taylor could not tell me exactly when he would be in Paris so I am

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-08 12:42:24 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-08 14:19:49 fixed typos ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-18 12:01:17