Viewing page 43 of 105

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

July 10, 1946

Dear Francois Gerard:

Thank you for your letter of July 4th and thank you also for the lovely idea of sending a hat to Edna.  It is charming and of such Parisian taste.  She looks lovely under it.  Thank you again.  You will find enclosed a letter of hers.

I wrote to you weeks ago that Mrs. Biddle was going back to Paris.  You obviously did not receive that letter as I obviously did not receive some of yours.  I have a faint recollection that she told me that she would live at the Claridges.  I tried to check it at the hotel where she lives in New York, but they have no forwarding address.  I just asked Jacques Helft, a minute ago, who did not have the faintest idea.  She went to Paris for several reasons, the main one being that she wanted to move to the States her finest pieces of furniture, paintings, etc.  I told her that what she did not want to keep, she should give to you for sale.

We are competing against Bensimon, who has been after her for a very long time and has sold her much more than I have.  For that reason, I would not be astonished that she had gone to him.  You will better know that she is unreliable from every point of view; as when she buys something, she sends it back the next day.  When she promises a payment, she rarely keeps her word, and one has to make it very clear when she has to pay, how much, etc.  She almost always does not expect to pay otherwise than on installments, but if you tell her beautiful tales that one needs the money right away because the work of art belongs to a widow, etc.

I do not know about any other clients having gone back, outside of Jacques Stern who I hear is in Paris:  I don't know where he stays.

I am leaving for Mt. Washington Hotel, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, with Mother, wife, and children, on Thursday next, with the idea of staying there until around the 25th of August, when I will be back at 116 East 53rd Street, New York City.

I am looking forward very much to seeing you again.  Let me know when you arrive.

Germain is honeymooning in Jamaica, and Mother had a letter from Jacqueline who seems to be without help and working hard on the estate.

Best love,