Documents associated with: mezzotint
Record 6 of 18
System Number: 00145
Date: 16 September 1878
Author: Sydney Morse[1]
Place: London
Recipient: Theodore Allingham[2]
Place: London
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler A144
Document Type: ALc
Copy
24 Coleman Street
E. C.
16 Sepr 1878
Dear Sir,
96 Cheyne Walk[3]
Mr Whistler has a key & his servant[4] another.
The latter makes use of his when no one is in the house & to this I object - Hence my requiring the latch keys.
I send on the other side an Amended Account.
Now that I have purchased the Cabinet[5] I prefer paying for the Engravings[6] in the ordinary course.
The Explanation of the alteration of the [p. 2] amount given for the fixtures is that Mr Whistler has not returned the curtain poles & rings[.] I have therefore deducted their value
If you will approve this account & send me the latch keys I will send a Cheque at once. The Cabinet has been a good deal broken. Will you be good enough to ask Miss Corder[7] to take care of any pieces she may find in her room & let me have them.
Yours truly
(sigd) Sydney Morse
The. Allingham Esq.
[p. 3]
| Cabinet | £25. 0. 0 | Rent to 24 June | £20. 0. 0 |
| Fixtures | 13. 15. 0 | Subsequent to 17 July | 5. 1. 6 |
| Balance | 13. 13. 6 | ||
| £ 38. 15. 0 | £ 38. 15. 0 |
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Notes:
1. Sydney Morse
Sydney Morse (1854-1929), solicitor [more].
2. Theodore Allingham
Theodore Frederick Allingham (b. 1845), solicitor [more]. See also Allingham's reply, 18 September 1878 (#00149).
3. 96 Cheyne Walk
JW's former house in Chelsea. Morse succeeded him as tenant upon the expiry of his lease on 25 June 1878. However, a delay in the completion of JW's new studio house, the White House, postponed his departure from Cheyne Walk for over a month.
4. servant
Probably John Cossins, JW's valet [more].
5. Cabinet
A Chinese cabinet sold by JW to Morse. It is now at Leighton House Museum, London. Soon afterwards, it became the subject of a protracted wrangle between JW, Morse and Charles Augustus ('Owl') Howell (1840? - d.1890), entrepreneur [more], the latter of whom pawned a section of the cabinet whilst claiming it was in for repair. JW published his version of events in Whistler, James McNeill, Correspondence. Paddon Papers. The Owl and the Cabinet, London, [1882].
6. Engravings
This is probably a reference to the scheme hatched by JW and Howell to reproduce in mezzotint works including Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle (YMSM 137), Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother (YMSM 101) and Arrangement in Brown and Black: Portrait of Miss Rosa Corder (YMSM 203). The engraving of Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle (YMSM 137), a portrait of Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), historian and philosopher [more], was published in a limited edition by Henry Graves and Co.. The first proofs were delivered on 2 December 1878 (Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 226-27). Howell organised the publicity (see for example #11899) and subscription list.
7. Miss Corder
Rosa Frances Corder (1853-1884), artist [more]. Rosa Corder was then mistress of C. A. Howell.