Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'T Gambier Parry') from Thomas Gambier Parry, to 'Mr. Moore' [B. T. Moore], regarding repairs to Tewkesbury Abbey, both lamenting that the paint he chose for the roof has turned to the colour of 'disgraceful mud'.

Author: 
Thomas Gambier Parry (1816-1888), benefactor and art collector [Benjamin Thomas Moore (d.1896), for 38 years churchwarden of Tewkesbury Abbey; Ven. Hemming Robeson]
Publication details: 
ONE: on letterhead of the United University Club, Pall Mall East, S.W. [London]. 8 February 1885. TWO: on letterhead of Highnam Court, Gloucester. 16 October [1885?].
£120.00
SKU: 11992

ONE: 3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with traces of glue from mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. Parry begins by exclaiming: 'What a grand example your activity at Tewkesbury is!' Whatever Moore means by 'the Construction of the Cloister walk - and other important business', Parry regrets that his 'obligations in London' will not allow him to join the Abbey Committee. He continues: 'I wish "bad times" did not put another thing out of my Power w[hic]h. I wd: willingly do - viz to recolour the green on the Abbey roof.' He is 'much annoyed': 'The colour I used had been strongly recommended to me - and I used it with too great confidence beacuse it cost about four shillings a pound, instead of 3 guineas, [last two words underlined] w[hic]h is the price of the colour I wished to use - but gave it up as too costly. Alas! the colour I used has turned into disgraceful mud!' He concludes: 'I was glad not for Tewkesbury but for its Vicar [Hemming Robeson, d.1912] that he had been singled out for a most honorable appoint[men]t.' TWO: 4pp., 16mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with thin strip of glue from mount along one edge. Once again he apologises for 'non-attendance at Tewkesbury', due to the fact that he is 'so much engage every day thisweek'. 'I am under rather stringent Doctor's orders'. However he would do his best to come for matters in which he could be 'specially useful [...] as in any art matters'. He is, 'as all other people interested in Tewkesbury must be', glad that 'the great difficulty has been mainly got over, and the vicar put into his proper buildings'. He concludes by repeating his lament over the roof: 'I was much annoyed to see the way in which the colour that was used in the Nave roof has changed - The soft sage green that I used is turned into something like green mud - and quite spoils the effect - If I could afford it I wd: do it over again at my own cost. The other colours & the gold seem to be perfectly solid.'