System Number: 09711
Date: 20 December [1893][1]
Author: JW
Place: Paris
Recipient: Edward Guthrie Kennedy[2]
Place: [New York]
Repository: New York Public Library
Call Number: E. G. Kennedy I/44
Credit Line: Edward Guthrie Kennedy Papers / Manuscripts and Archives Division / The New York Public Library / Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Document Type: ALS
110. Rue du Bac - Paris.
Dec. 20 -
Dear Mr Kennedy -
I sent off, to Messrs Wunderlich, 868. Broadway, yesterday, according to your two post cards[3] of Dec. 5th & Dec. 9th, the following proofs[4] -
| a 23611 | 2. | Houses Red & Black | £ 6 - 6. |
| - 12 | 1. | " with painted roof | 2 - 2. |
| - 13 | 2. | " with figures in doorway | 4 - 4 |
| - 14 | 1. | Market Place | 2 - 2. |
| - 15 | 1. | "Vitré", which I take to be what you mean by "French house" | 2 - 2. |
| - 16 | 2. | Houses "Yellow & Green" (1st State) | 6 - 6 |
| less 20% dis. | £23- 2 | ||
| 4. 12. 5 | |||
| £18. 9. 7 |
[p. 2] "The Yellow & Green" as you see are of the 1st State - and of course will be more curious - as there are only a few printed and thats over. - Of the later state meanwhile as I told you I have not a proof - -
Why are things so bad in America? !! They tell me that the strange question of silver[5] (which I never pretended to understand) is amicably settled and all panic over - Why are you not then all happy!
I am glad that the lithographs please the collectors for I am very much interested in them myself, and hope you are delighted with the last new ones -
I shall soon have some others which of course I shall send on at once -
I will send two proofs of each new one? Isn't that right? -
With kindest regards from all
Very sincerely,
J McN Whistler
[p. 3] '1893[6].'
'J. McN. Whistler'
'Bill Dec. 20th'
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. 20 December [1893]
Year dated from the sequence of correspondence (see below), and from the date note in other hand on p. 4.
2. Edward Guthrie Kennedy
Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932), dealer with H. Wunderlich and Co., New York [more].
3. post cards
Not located. On 10 and 20 November 1893, Kennedy had placed orders for various lithographs (#07223 and #07224). He then wrote to JW on 19 December complaining that he had not received them (#07225). JW wrote this letter presumably before he received Kennedy's complaint, to say that he had just shipped the prints.
4. proofs
These titles do not coincide exactly with known titles but the list appears to include Red House, Paimpol (C.66), The Clock-Makers, Paimpol (C.65), Gabled Roofs (C.64), Vitré: The Canal (C.63), and Yellow House, Lannion (C.67).
5. question of silver
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890) increased the U.S. government's monthly silver purchases by 50 percent. In the years immediately after 1890 a combination of pressures sharply reduced the amount of gold in the U.S. Treasury, precipitating a panic in the spring of 1893. Conservatives charged that the Sherman Act was the cause of the panic, and in the summer of 1893 the act was repealed by Congress. However, farmers in the South and West condemned this action, blaming the greed of eastern bankers for the depressed state of the economy, and resumed their demand for the unlimited coinage of silver.
6. 1893 ... 20th
Added in another hand.