Secrets of an Art Dealer

Book excerpt: ART DEALtR JAMES HENRY DUVEEN New York E. P. DUTTON CO., INC. To THAT BEING WHICH OCCURS ONLY ONCE IN LIFE A MOTHER CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. REMAKING A RELIQUARY FOR 30,000, 9 II. THE PRINCE WHO LOST HIS TAPESTRIES . 28 III. THE TRAGEDY OF THE JABAGH VASES . 45 IV. THE FATAL PLATE OF BERNARD PALISSY . 64 V. THE TITLED KLEPTOMANIAC . . 77 VI. THE MADDEST COLLECTOR I HAVE EVER KNOWN ...... 88 VII. THE BLACKMAILING OF AN EXPERT, . 102 VIII. How PIERPONT MORGAN BOUGHT MIS TAKES, . . . .118 IX. How A V. C. EARNED A ROYAL SNUFFBOX 134 X. A LOVE-INTRIGUE THAT RUINED AN ART DEALER . . . . . .146 XL How A TWENTY MILLION WIDOW LOST ME 2 7,000 . . . .160 XII. THE SECRET OF NAPOLEON IIs CASKET . 172 XIII. THE DRESDEN PORCELAIN CASE . 184 XIV. THE ART DEALER WHO ESCAPED PENAL SERVITUDE . ., . .196 XV. WHEN CONNOISSEURS Go WRONG . . 208 XVI. How I LOST FIVE 2o, loo VASES . . 224 XVII. THE TRAGEDY OF VAN OLDENBARNE VELDT 238 XVIII. DOUBLE CROSSED BY A FRIEND . .251 XIX. THE CURSE OF THE MALEVOLENT GODS 260 XX. SAVED BY THE CAMORRA . . . 272 ILLUSTRATIONS FACE PAGE GOTHIC TAPESTRY THE CREDO TOURNAI ... 36 THE HEESWIJK CASTLE SET OF AZURE CHINESE VASES WITH THREE COVERS . . . . . . 37 A BERNARD PALISSY DISH ...... 68 A SNUFF Box 69 DRESDEN PORCELAIN SLEIGH GROUP .... 92 FRAXJ HERMINA FEIST ...... 93 GOTHIC SUIT OF ARMOUR . . . . . 108 THE FAMOUS GUZMAN CROSS . . . . .109 THE SNUFF Box OF FREDERICK THE GREAT . . 138 CHEVALIER JACOB VAN Esso THE RIDDER, . 139 THE Louis XVI WRITING CABINET . . . .166 NAPOLEON II KING OF ROME . . . . .167 EXECUTION OF MAXIMILIAN OF AUSTRIA, . .180 THE FREEMASON GROUP OF DRESDEN PORCELAIN . 181 THE COUNTESS COSEL, DRESDEN CRINOLINE FIGURE . 198 FIVE CHINESE PORCELAIN FAMILLEROSE VASES . 199 A Louis XV FAN ....... 212 STUART HIGH-BACK CHAIR . . . . .213 FAMILLE NOIRE VASE 230 JONKHEER VAN OLDENBARNEVELDTs HOUSE IN THE NoORD ElNDE AT THE HAGUE . . . . .231 OLD DELFT POTTERY BY ALBERT DE KEYSER . . 246 CLARET WORCESTER PLATE 247 THE MALEVOLENT GODS ..... 262 WORCESTER DISH 263 vn SECRETS OF AN ART DEALER SECRETS OF AN ART DEALER CHAPTER I REMAKING A RELIQUARY FOR 30,000 THE Combes law which, at a stroke, converted all the ecclesiastical treasures of France into State property, was one of those upheavals which, like the War, brought objects into the art markets of the world which had long been thought quite safe from any chance of dispersal. Thirty odd years ago no one dreamed that such wonderful goldsmiths work, pictures and other treasures, would ever be freed from the dead hand, and the result was startling. The Loi Combes taught me that even the Church would steal its own property rather than allow it to fall into the hands of the State despoilers. Priests, devout citizens, not quite so devout or so respectable ladies afid a host of hangers-on intrigued and conspired one against the other, linked only by the common trait of feverish greed. As I was motoring with an artist friend on the Continent I happened to be amongst the first to be caught up into this maelstrom I say motoring, for although we were aiming for the Riviera we had only got one third of the way in ten days We could have walked it faster, but those were the days when io SECRETS OF AN ART DEALER tyres were only guaranteed for about 500 miles and the motorist spent more time under his car than in it. Near Auxerre Sydney Watson, my companion, sat down on a roadside bank and hitched up hiselegant trousers. He paid no attention at all to a small crowd of loafers and children who goggled alternately at him and me. My dear Duveen, he exclaimed, the more I see of motor cars the more I congratulate myself I know nothing about them Especially in this tropical heat. Kneeling in the dust with the sweat trickling down my face, and wrestling with a burst tyre, I only just avoided losing my temper, 1 must have looked a Harry Tate figure, clad in I regret to say a suit of dark purple leather...