Item 16 - Letter from George Stacy to Dawson Turner

1 folded sheet

Norwich.—Among the pictures he is proposing to give to a London dealer in part-exchange for others is one by by Teniers which he had previously offered to Turner. Asks if he still wants it, and if he will help him obtain a copy of one of Christie’s sale catalogues.

(Signed 'Geo. Stacy Jr'.)

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Transcript

Sir

By last Nights Coach I returned from London, and have discovered there a sort of “Rara avis in terris” a perfect prodigy, I assure you, an honest dealer in pictures!! I am so told however, and have no reason to think otherwise at present, our acquaintance however has been Cut short, and as I know well that opinions hastily formed are frequently obliged to be retracted, I will venture no further on this point just yet.

The liberty I am taking in addressing this epistle to you Sir, is shortly this, I am very desirous to take from the number of pictures I possess, and to add to them quality, five and twenty for me, rather than fifty, but these shall be of the first class!!!—the worthy Gentleman above alluded to, has three pictures that will be to me a great acquisition, and we have so far got through, that it is agreed he is to take the stipulated sum in two thirds cash, one third Pictures—amongst five small ones I intend sending, is the little breakfast picture of “Taste” by Teniers, bought at the late Mr Harveys sale, but when removing them from the wall this morning for the purpose of packing, I remembered your request when at my house with Mrs Turner, to have this picture offered you in case I should ever be induced to part with it, I have now nothing as a companion and do not care for keeping it, should you therefore still feel desirous to possess it, it is at your service upon the same terms I had it at the sale, (23 Guineas) I will delay my package untill I receive your reply, and should you decide upon taking it, it shall be directly dispatched for Yarmouth, you will probably be in Norwich in the Spring of the year, ’till which time delay the payment, then on your calling I shall have the pleasure to show you a Picture, which I believe to be the very finest of Ruisdaels productions.

I have now Sir a favour to ask of you, and I am sure if it lays in your means you will oblige me,—I am endeavouring to collect catalogues of the most eminent sales of pictures that have taken place within the last fourteen years, amongst those I have, is one, of the sale at Mr Christie’s room on Monday July 12th 1811, {1} the Pictures were all fine, but amongst them in particular one Rembrandt Ship Builder &c the Hayfield Wouwerman, Philip, Bathing the Eunuch, by Both &c &c these with many others of them were from the Cabinet of Mr Schmi[dt] {2} of Amsterdam, this catalogue is but in eight or ten instances marked, and should you possess one, and for a day or two would grant me the loan of it to complete mine by, I shall esteem it an obligation.

Am Sir
most respectfully
Your Obliged Hble Serv[an]t
Geo: Stacy Jr

Norwich
Decr 14th 1821

To
Dawson Turner Esqr

[Superscription:] Dawson Turner Esqr | Yarmouth

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No marks of posting.

{1} The date is apparently wrong. See A Catalogue of … Italian, French, Flemish and Dutch Pictures … comprising the flower of the very precious cabinet of Mr Schmidt of Amsterdam … which will be sold by auction by Mr Christie at his Great Room, Pall Mall, on Wednesday, June 12th, 1811, and The Times, 12 June 1811, p. 4. The collector referred to as ‘Mr Schmidt’ was Pieter de Smeth van Alphen, a Dutch merchant and banker. See ‘An unwritten chapter of Dutch collecting history: the painting collection of Pieter de Smeth van Alphen (1753-1809)’, Simiolus, vol. 40, no. 1 (2018), pp. 18-98.

{2} A small piece of the paper has been cut away where the seal was attached.

This description was created by A. C. Green in 2022.