Documents associated with: Paddon, Samuel Wreford
Record 15 of 36
System Number: 04368
Date: [June/July 1882][1]
Author: JW
Place: [London]
Recipient: Samuel Wreford Paddon[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler P7
Document Type: ALd[3]
Mr Jack McNay[4] tells me he has received a printed copy of my correspondence with yourself
My dear Paddon this is amazing!!! -
Strange too isn't it that you should not have sent one to me - you know about the ettiquette [sic] of these sporting matters, ought this not to have been?
However it is all delightful! and now we will carry through the whole affair - [p. 2] I will bring out a "complete edition" - with McNay's answer & Mewburns letter[5] -
What a game ain't it! - Oh! and I will print the receipt & full statement of Chapman[6] the pawnbroker, concerning the famous top of the Cabinet, & the "Owls" letters[7] to Mr Sydney Morse[8] during the exploitation of the same:- Splendid ain't it? -
What a lark it will be for you by & bye when you kick out the Portugee, as infallibly you will one of these days - and when you then think of all friendly letters that during your intimacy with him you will have written and Howell will have carefully preserved to show in future as the "Paddon Papers" - forming a volume that shall take its place among those that bind up Burne Jones[9] & Ruskin[10] and Rossetti[11] & Whistler and others - dear me we have all helped! - and I have seen them all produced on occasions when the birds character required propping - . When, you in your turn [p. 3] shall have added to his credit in new fields with fresh corners then indeed will you fully enjoy the completeness of the present correspondence
Always yours
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [June/July 1882]
Dated from Paddon's reply, #09526 (published in Whistler, James McNeill, Correspondence. Paddon Papers. The Owl and the Cabinet, London, [1882], Letter VIII).
2. Samuel Wreford Paddon
Samuel Wreford Paddon (b. 1843), diamond merchant and collector [more].
3. ALd
Published in Whistler, James McNeill, Correspondence. Paddon Papers. The Owl and the Cabinet, London, [1882], Letter VII. The letter is written in the hand of Mary Maud Franklin (1857- ca 1941), JW's model and mistress [more].
4. Jack McNay
John ('Jack') Edward MacNay (1834-1893), General Manager of the Stockton and Darlington Railway [more].
5. McNay's answer & Mewburns letter
Probably J. E. McNay to JW, #03738 and F. Mewburn to JW, #09529 (see Whistler, James McNeill, Correspondence. Paddon Papers. The Owl and the Cabinet, London, [1882], Letters X and XI. Mewburn was Frank F. Mewburn (b. 1820 or 1821), solicitor and collector [more].
6. Chapman
William Alexander Chapman (fl. 1863-1888), pawnbroker and antique dealer [more]. For Chapman's receipt and statement see Whistler, James McNeill, Correspondence. Paddon Papers. The Owl and the Cabinet, London, [1882], Letter XXII.
7. "Owls" letters
Charles Augustus ('Owl') Howell (1840? - d.1890), entrepreneur [more]. The references to Howell, Morse and the 'Cabinet' relate to the story of the Chinese 'pagoda' cabinet sold by JW to Morse in September 1878. Howell apparently acted as agent. Soon afterwards, it became the subject of an elaborate deception instigated by Howell. Contrary to Howell's claim that he had taken it in for repair, it later turned out that he had pawned the head-piece. JW published his version of events in Whistler, James McNeill, Correspondence. Paddon Papers. The Owl and the Cabinet, London, [1882]. While Morse's letters to Howell were published by JW in the pamphlet, he did not manage to secure Howell's in return.
8. Sydney Morse
Sydney Morse (1854-1929), solicitor [more].
9. Burne Jones
Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898), painter and designer [more].
10. Ruskin
John Ruskin (1819-1900), critic, social reformer and artist [more].
11. Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), artist and poet [more].