“I HAVE FELT THAT THE PRESENT CHAIRS ARE TOO LARGE…”
Letter: December 17, 1914
From: James Deering, Vizcaya’s Owner
To: Paul Chalfin, Vizcaya’s Artistic Director
Reveal Transcript
Dear Mr. Chalfin:–
I have your letter of the 14th. The two chairs have arrived and are in my bedroom as you suggested. You wrote that one of them might be used for the writing stand in the mirror room. They are as large as the present chairs in the mirror room, and I have felt that the present chairs are too large and entirely out of scale to stand at the writing desk.
I will, as you suggest, ponder over the matter of the blue velvet costing $4,500.00.
Your account of the child’s bust is amusing. I will not say that I am not mistaken, for I sometimes have been.
I reply also to yours of the 14th. Referring to space for dining-room tables, you surely remember that on our first visit to Florence we bought a rectangular, if not square, table, once used for some religious purpose, of a man whom we have never since visited. This you have always told me, was to stand out in the dining-room to be used as a serving table. It was to stand out because it was made to show all four sides, and stood out in the church or vestry where it was used. Your letter would intimate that you have abandoned this plan. If you have not abandoned it, the information that you have given me is, of course not correct. If you have decided to abandon this serving table, and if the dimensions given in your letter are actually correct, you had better telegraph me, as my time is getting short.
Yours sincerely,
James Deering
Mr. Paul Chalfin,
432 Fourth Avenue
New York, N.Y.
“THE CHAIR… COULD GIVE ME EITHER PLEASURE OR UNHAPPINESS”
Letter: February 18, 1918
From: James Deering, Vizcaya’s Owner
To: Paul Chalfin, Vizcaya’s Artistic Director
Reveal Transcript
Dear Mr. Chalfin:
I read with interest your letter of the 14th inst. I can, of course, make no plans until my mother’s illness has ceased. Naturally I should be glad to have the Chicago house put in order as early as possible, but I do not demand the impossible.
I did not mean to ask that any particular color of velvet should be put in the Potter Palmer chair for my sitting room. I only meant to ask that whatever you proposed to put on it should be submitted to me first. As you know the room is small and the chair will be large and could give me either pleasure or unhappiness.
I suggested to Mrs. Syer that she make use of part of Mr. McGinnis’s office for the part of the time when it was not necessary for her to see the servants. She seemed to assent to the idea but has not, so far, used this office. Mrs. Adair is still using the flower room and will do so, though she arranges some flowers on the table in the south arcade I believe. Mrs. Syer is asking for a small ice box or refrigerator in the flower room, and I think the idea is a good one. Do you see any objection and would you prefer to build one in ? She thinks the locker or press next the sink could be deepened to hold one bought ready-made. This, of course, would need your study here.
Please use your own judgement about the carpet for Mrs. Syers’ office, which undoubtedly she is entitled to have.
I still believe each bedroom should have a screen.
Yours sincerely,
[initialed] JD
