Viewing page 117 of 173

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[underlined]] Lewisohn. [[/underlined]]

-3-  12/7/16

Such a plan is also needed so that, should we send you photographs of pieces of furniture intended to be placed against the walls, they should be of sizes corresponding to spaces between windows and doors.

Nothing could give me more pleasure than to do for you what we have been doing for Mrs Blumenthal for many years, and, if you will consider the business side of the question, you must admit that the continuance of her confidence in our firm proves that she has made no mistake in giving us her implicite confidence.

We shall be most happy to send you photographs of works of art which may interest you, but I will only be able to do so if you tell me that you will abstain from showing such photographs to anybody connected with our class of business. You doubtless know the tremendous rivalry which exists, and that many unscrupulous competitors would be only too glad, should they, at some later day, see a work of art of which you have photograph, in some other house than yours, to tell its owner that it was a work of art which you had rejected. We have suffered so much in the past from such unfair competition, that we had in late years adopted an absolute rule in our house, never to again send photographs. In the present case, as I had the pleasure of knowing you and your family for a great many years, I am quite willing to make an exception, being perfectly confident that, if you tell me that you will not show the photographs, we will not have in each case to fear unpleasant consequences.

I hope that, when George Blumenthal comes back to New York, your husband will be kind enough to speak to him and ask him about our business methods, as our dealings with him extend over a

Transcription Notes:
I assume the lighter text in the first paragraph is the next page, visible through thin paper, and so didn't transcribe it