Morgan by Jean Strouse

Author:Jean Strouse [Strouse, Jean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-82767-8
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2012-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

He never confined himself to a single scholarly adviser, a specific period, an artistic genre, or a uniform aesthetic. From the London bookseller Pearson, he bought in 1897 the manuscript of Keats’s Endymion, with its famous opening line: “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” From the heirs of Byron’s mistress, the Countess Guiccioli, he purchased the original autograph manuscripts of Don Juan, Marino Faliero, Manfred, and several shorter poems. And at about this time he acquired the original manuscript of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, written in 1843. The most renowned Christmas story in the English language made the name Scrooge synonymous with “miser,” although the bitter old skinflint is dramatically converted by the Spirits of Christmas and belated self-knowledge into a warmhearted, generous man. If Morgan intended any satirical self-reflection with this important literary prize, he left no record of it.

At Cartier’s in Paris between 1899 and 1901 he spent $200,000 on jewelry, portrait miniatures, jardinières, vases, and Sèvres porcelain. From the Frankfurt antiquities dealers J. & S. Goldschmidt in 1896 he bought a richly embossed silver cup said to be by Cellini (it wasn’t), from the collection of the Earl of Warwick, for £8,000 ($40,000). Morgan especially liked the ornate objects in which Goldschmidt specialized, and through this dealer he bought Limoges enamels, a reliquary casket allegedly containing an arm bone of Catherine of Braganza, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century German drinking vessels, a Louis XV chatelaine, a silver tazza said to have been owned by the Aldobrandini family, jewelry, faience, bottles, and bonbonnières.

At the galleries of Duveen Brothers in London and New York, he worked primarily with Henry Duveen, uncle of the more famous Joseph. One day, Joseph reportedly decided that Henry was not taking full advantage of the Morgan millions, and asked permission to try his own hand. He made up a tray of thirty portrait miniatures—six masterpieces, the rest mediocre—and offered them to Morgan. The banker looked them over quickly, then asked, “How much for the lot?” Joseph shot Uncle Henry a look of triumph and named a sum. Morgan selected the six good items off the velvet tray and slipped them into his pocket. He divided the figure Joseph had named by thirty, multiplied by six, said he would pay that price, and left. Uncle Henry smiled. “Joe,” he said, “you’re only a boy. It takes a man to deal with Morgan.”

Morgan knew a great deal about portrait miniatures, and assembled one of the finest private collections of the modern era. First popularized in France at the court of Francis I (1515–47), these tiny paintings served as pledges of loyalty and love, centuries before the invention of photography. They appealed to Morgan’s taste on several counts—artistic merit, historical value, royal associations, rarity, and romance. Usually painted on vellum and set in gold frames or in ravishingly beautiful gold, enamel, glass, and ivory boxes, they were worn in lockets and pendants, kept on mantels and bedside tables, and in secret drawers. Lord Nelson died with an image of Emma Hamilton around his neck.

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