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Mr. A. Chatain,
Chicago.  8 Dec. 1921
-2-

French 18th century furniture and works of art, that is, for instance, little marble clock on the mantel piece, a set of furniture in tapestry if a very fine one can be found of the right proportions, nice small tables, etc. and to do away with the set of furniture which is in now and which is far from being what it ought to be.

It is so rare a thing to find rooms so distinctly of an epoch that I sincerely believe that the greatest service you could render Mr. Stout, and for which I am sure he will be thankful to you for years to come, is to induce him to do as stated above.

Of course all I tell you above is, I hope, strictly between us, as Mr. Stout might believe, if you mentioned this to him, that I am interested and, as we say, "pleading for my saint", which in fact is not the case, and I don't know him well enough to have him do what I want, but if this first part of my letter is for you only, I might come now to a business proposition.

You will remember that I told you that we have at our galleries here in New York, one of the finest Clouet's men portraits that exist. [[underlined]] You know Clouet is very very rare! [[/underlined]] I consider this portrait by the master to be of the finest quality and worthy of Mr. Stout's picture collection. It is very small, height 6 5/8", width 5 1/2", and I am sending you by separate mail a photo of it, also the book in which it is reproduced. You will see that this book is a catalogue of a [[underlined]] genuine [[/underlined]] exhibition, in which it was exhibited in 1907. This picture has been in my possession through all these years, a part of my private collection, I never wanted to part with it, even in spite of Mr. J.P. Morgan's insistence to purchase it. Nowadays, conditions have changed, and I don't want to keep in my home so valuable a picture, and I have decided to part with it.